Too much time won’t be excuse

Steelers brass may benefit from having less time to ponder their picks.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers may start drafting the way they tell their players to play.

Namely, don’t spend too much time thinking, but rather react — and quickly — to what they see.

Director of football operations Kevin Colbert said the speeded-up first and second rounds Saturday may have a residual benefit for the Steelers: It will give them less time to think between picks.

“Quite honestly, the mistakes we have made, the players that haven’t worked out for us, have been the second and fourth rounds,” Colbert said. “For whatever reason, maybe we had too much time to think about fourth-round picks, those players weren’t properly evaluated and we made some mistakes. So we have to be careful.”

Previously, teams had 15 minutes to make their first-round picks, but that is being trimmed to 10 minutes. On the second round, teams will have only seven minutes, rather than 10 minutes.

Also, there will be only two rounds Saturday, rather than three rounds as in the past, so the Steelers will have all night to weigh their third-round pick rather than their fourth. The final five rounds will be Sunday.

Colbert likes the faster draft because it forces teams to make their picks quickly and may eliminate the temptation to spend too much time evaluating a choice rather than going with the obvious pick.

“We don’t like to wait around. You can make your mind up,” he said. “Ten minutes is plenty. Seven minutes is plenty.”

Colbert wasn’t entirely kidding.

Steelers draft flubs in the last 10 years have included second-round cornerback Ricardo Colclough (2004), linebacker Alonzo Jackson (2003), safety Scott Shields (1999) and defensive end Jeremy Staat (1998), and fourth-round defensive end Orien Harris (2006), wide receiver Fred Gibson (2005), offensive tackle Mathias Nkwenti (2001) and wide receiver Danny Farmer (2000).

With only six picks in the seven-round draft — they traded their seventh-round pick for kick returner Allen Rossum — the Steelers may be looking to trade down and add picks in what Colbert calls one of the deepest drafts he can remember.

“Trading up [from No. 23] in the first round is really not a likely scenario,” Colbert said. “In other years, I would always say we could go up or could go down, but realistically I don’t think we can go up. Trading down is an inviting option because there are a lot of players in rounds two, three and four that could help this team.”

The Steelers’ thinking is that they need help at multiple positions — including the offensive line, wide receiver and running back — but that none is so weak that they must target their first-rounder for any one position.

“I don’t see us taking a quarterback or a tight end in the first round, but other than that, we are open to any position,” Colbert said.