History of the decade: Receivers and tight ends

[stillers4me]

A look at the Steelers' success and failures in the draft and free agency since 2004 ...

Draft
Heath Miller, a first-round pick in 2005, is the best tight end in Steelers history and remains among the top in the game today. Antonio Brown, the ultimate value pick -- chosen in the sixth round in 2010 -- is now a bona fide No. 1 receiver and a burgeoning star.

Though no longer with the team, several picks made huge contributions. Santonio Holmes -- whom the Steelers traded up for in the first round in 2006 -- literally captured a league-record sixth Super Bowl victory for the franchise, then was jettisoned a year later for bad behavior. Despite Mike Wallace's exit last year, he was an excellent third-round pick in 2009. Emmanuel Sanders showed flashes of being an above average third-round pick from the same draft, but not enough that the Steelers prevented him from leaving via free agency this offseason............


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/s...#ixzz2y7cLmVuy

[Steelerette]

I always felt like Fred Gibson, Toney Clemons, and even Limas Sweed to an extent, we wasted those guys not giving them enough chance to acclimate.

[ALLD]

L.C. Greenwood was a 10th round pick in 1969.

[Shoes]

I always felt like Fred Gibson, Toney Clemons, and even Limas Sweed to an extent, we wasted those guys not giving them enough chance to acclimate.

I think Sweed had more issues than acclimating.

http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com...burgh-steelers

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/4679/limas-sweed

[Craic]

I think Sweed had more issues than acclimating.

http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com...burgh-steelers

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/4679/limas-sweed

I tend to think Tomlin pretty much blew up this kid's confidence by yanking him out of any and every game he dropped a pass in. It's the same thing that happened with the RBs up in Cleveland that night when we had something like 4-6 fumbles by a RB, and every time, they got yanked out of the game and replaced.

Anyone realize that since that time, Tomlin's taken a different approach, keeping RBs and WRs in games after a fumble?

[steelreserve]

Wow, it's hard to believe Sweed is 29 already. Even if he'd become a star, we'd be talking about "needing to find a replacement soon."

Say what you will about him, but I think injuries killed his career as much as anything. He started out with some horrible, horrible dropped balls, but he only had 20 career targets. Hard to say what might or might not have been based on that kind of sample size. Then as soon as it looked like we might get to find out - BAM! - torn Achilles.

This article is probably the most in-depth summary of his career I've seen:
http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com...t-catch/22178/

As a bonus, it even comes complete with a reference to the old SF message board:

Message boards were rampant with rumors of Sweed contracting an illness as serious as HIV, though that was always hard to believe seeing as how Sweed can’t catch anything.

Needless to say, I was shocked to discover that an AIDS joke I made 4 years earlier (which, in hindsight, was probably in poor taste - but judging by the 3:07 a.m. timestamp, that was probably a minor concern) was mentioned by a nationally known football site. At least anyone who clicks on the link gets to see a reference to both Goatse AND Tubgirl to emphasize the gravity of it. And they made a pretty good joke out of it - can't believe we missed that one. Anyway, the moral of the story: It's a dangerous place, that Internet.