The 3,113 Snap Steelers Draft Class Of 2008 Is No More

[stillers4me]

When safety Ryan Mundy signed with the New York Giants on Thursday, it guaranteed that the 2008 draft class of the Pittsburgh Steelers is all gone nearly six years after they were drafted.

Most of that class has been gone for a while, as Mundy and running back Rashard Mendenhall were the only two remaining from it last season.

That draft will more than likely go down as one of the worst that general manager Kevin Colbert has ever had, at least from a snaps played standpoint.

According to Pro Football Focus, those seven draft picks combined to play 3,113 snaps outside of special teams during their time in Pittsburgh. 1,904 of the snaps came from Mendenhall, the lone player to really produce anything from that class, and thank God he did. He left for the Arizona Cardinals via free agency on Wednesday............

read more @ http://www.steelersdepot.com/2013/03...ft-class-2008/

[GBMelBlount]

Mendy's highlight reel.

[fansince'76]

Gotta love 20/20 hindsight...

GRADE: B+


Pittsburgh Steelers: Terrific bit of luck getting RB Rashard Mendenhall 23rd, especially when the o-linemen they liked best were gone. This gives them some between-the-tackles punch to complement Willie Parker, who comes off a broken leg. WR Limas Sweed is a great value late in round 2 and Bruce Davis is a typical Steelers' outside LB with rush skills. OT Tony Hill is a mauler who fits this type of running game.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...t-grades_N.htm

Pittsburgh Steelers


Best Pick: Rashard Mendenhall, RB, Illinois Round 1.
Fantastic value at the 23 spot.


Worst Pick: None.
Limas Sweed was a steal in the second round, as was Mendenhall in the first.


2nd Day Steal: Dennis Dixon, QB, Oregon, Round 5.
Dixon will have plenty of time to rehab and develop his passing skills as a backup to Ben Roethlisberger.


Overall: B+. The Steelers got tremendous value and added a lot of talent to the offense. Day two provided them with three potential impact players in Bruce Davis, Tony Hills, and Dixon. The only real negative is not landing a lineman early on to help ease the loss of Al Faneca.

http://www.footballsfuture.com/2008/afcgrades.html

Pittsburgh Steelers: I want to see Big Ben playing skyball with the second-round pick, 6-4, 217-pound Limas Sweed, the wideout. I'm interested to see what they do with Dennis Dixon, the very classy and athletic Oregon QB who was headed for first-round glory before he tore the ACL in his knee and ended up a fifth rounder. I bet they have some Kordell Stewart numbers cooked up for him. Rashard Mendenhall, to take some pressure off Fast Willie in the running game, was a good choice, too.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...dup/index.html

[Psycho Ward 86]

Mendy's highlight reel.

and basically how you sum up that draft class

[Seven]

If Mendenhall cared about football at all I think he could be one of the best backs in the league. Like top two or three. It is just obvious that he doesn't give a shit about the game. He's in it for a paycheck. It's hard to blame the guy. Most of us don't have a burning passion for our jobs, but it's still annoying to see that skill go to waste.

Sweed just re-signed with Saskatchewan after being on their roster but injured last year.

Dixon should get some playing time this year.

These guys all have talent but none of them seem to know how to use it.

[salamander]

Definitely don't wanna see a repeat of our 2008 draft...

[tube517]

Worst Pick: None.
Limas Sweed was a steal in the second round, as was Mendenhall in the first.

[Godfather]

Wow. After reading the opinions from the gurus, it makes me wonder how much of good drafting is really just dumb luck. Seems like a lot of general managers and "experts" would have made the same mistakes.

[Spike]

MarkKaboly_Trib Playing off @DVEMike, only 11 of 54 total draft picks from 2003-09 are still on @Steelers roster.

[NCSteeler]

One thing about draft picks not hanging on the roster has to do with all these years of having great players already on board. Hard for some draft pick to displace anyone on the Defense 2007-2010. If your team completely sucks it's real easy to bring in some young draft pick and toss some vet off the starting lineup for him.

[Spike]

Wow. After reading the opinions from the gurus, it makes me wonder how much of good drafting is really just dumb luck.

What it really means is all the "draft gurus" aren't worth crap half the time.

The draft is still a crapshoot.

[BnG_Hevn]

The draft is like when you interview a person for a job. You get the "best look" they have, then you have to grade them as they do actual work.

[zulater]

If the Players Association or league ever wants to drive home the point about why the NFL truly should stand for "Not For Long,'' go back to the 2008 draft for vivid proof.
Jake Long's departure from Miami to St. Louis in free agency Sunday night means 42 of the top 64 players in the 2008 draft -- not quite five years ago -- are no longer on the teams that drafted them.
That's 66 percent of the drafted players gone from their original teams ... 19 of the first 32, 23 of the next 32.
I would say "first round'' and "second round'' in the above sentence, but the 2008 draft had an asterisk. The league took New England's 2008 first-round pick away because of the Spygate case, and so the 32nd overall pick, Phillip Merling of Miami, was actually the first pick of the second round.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl...#ixzz2Nup19UM3

Turns out it wasn't just us, 2008 wasn't a great year for the draft.