Um...wha?

This is from Len Pasquarelli’s article today on ESPN.com. It is a quote from some NFL ‘expert’, not Len himself.

"There ought to be a lot of teams kicking themselves for passing on [tight end] Heath Miller in the draft. He has really added a new dimension to the Pittsburgh passing game and is one of their best first-round picks in years."

Now while I love Heath Miller, I think he is going to prove to be a really good addition to the Steelers for hopefully years to come, it is just a bad attempt to get a sound bit. Teams might want a solid TE now with the rules enforcement and the new focus on TE’s but to say that Heath Miller is one of the Steelers best first-round picks in years, come on now. Here are the seven previous number one picks before Miller.

1998 – Alan Faneca
1999 – Troy Edwards
2000 – Plaxico Burress
2001 – Casey Hampton
2002 – Kendall Simmons
2003 – Troy Polamalu
2004 – Ben Roethlisberger

Sure OL guys don’t make ‘sexy’ picks but Simmons is a solid starter and Faneca has made five straight Pro Bowls. Troy Edwards didn’t quite work out but Plaxico is a pretty darn good Wide Receiver, Casey Hampton is one of the best Nose Tackles in the NFL, it is a position that gets overlooked in the 3-4 defense so Casey has only made one Pro Bowl. The last two guys, they obviously haven’t worked out either, Polamalu is the SI coverboy, victim of bad calls, All World Safety. Ben, well he is currently 25-4 with 98+ QB rating. So yeah, Heath is probably going to be pretty good but I don’t know if ‘best first round pick’ is something you heap on him quite yet.