Bud Dupree No Longer Terrible

[Six Rings]

OK, who was making the decisions to draft or not draft a good QB? Was Tom Donahoe the GM during most of Cowher's tenure and was he just a figurehead, or did Donahoe handle player personnel?

Regardless of whether Donahoe was leading the draft process or not. Who were the great QB's the Steelers were going to select in the drafts when they were drafting in the #20-30 range? Some of the best names that were available on the board when the Steeler card was up to pick were:

-Billy Jo Hobert
-Todd Collins
-Tony Banks
-Jim Druckenmiller
-Charlie Batch
-Shaun King
-Chad Pennington
-Drew Brees
-Patrick Ramsey

So, with the exception of Drew Brees, there were not a lot of great QB's in the top 20 available when they drafted. Yes, they missed on the Quincy Carters, Heath Schuler, Trent Dilfer, Rick Mirer, Drew Bledsoe, Akili Smith, Tim Couch, Andre Ware's because they didn't draft high enough. Short of scouring the Hyvee looking for Kurt Warner and drafting Tom Brady in the 6th round. I don't think there were many good QB's to be found when they drafted.

Very good post. One thing to note. Brees would have been a 1st round pick if the round was 32 deep like it is today. It wasn't back then.

The Steelers didn't need a top QB. We went to the super bowl with O'Donnell, who was a decent passing QB at the end os his tenure, then hitched our wagon to Kordell Stewart. A mistake. I would have drafted Brees. Had the Steelers kept O'Donnell and maybe added a playmaker at receiver, we could have gone back to the super bowl. As it was we had a dynasty level Cowboys team in their prime up agains the ropes until Andre Hastings ran the wrong route.

[teegre]

Very good post. One thing to note. Brees would have been a 1st round pick if the round was 32 deep like it is today. It wasn't back then.

The Steelers didn't need a top QB. We went to the super bowl with O'Donnell, who was a decent passing QB at the end os his tenure, then hitched our wagon to Kordell Stewart. A mistake. I would have drafted Brees. Had the Steelers kept O'Donnell and maybe added a playmaker at receiver, we could have gone back to the super bowl. As it was we had a dynasty level Cowboys team in their prime up agains the ropes until Andre Hastings ran the wrong route.

Every draft pundit and Steelers fan was locked in on Brees. But, Cowher wanted Dan Morgan (ILB, The U). Brees was never on his radar.

SIDENOTE: The Chargers had Brees, LT, Gates, and the second-best O-line in the league. Had they stuck with Brees, and drafted Larry Fitzgerald... they had at least one Lombardi.

It wasn’t Andre Hastings; it was Corey Holliday. But, actually... a certain unnamed QB (who had the lowest INT rate in the NFL) suddenly threw three really, really off target balls. It’s almost as if../ I don’t know... he was PAID to throw that game.

[HollywoodSteel]

Ask the same question, except change "Dupree" to "Tuitt" or "Watt." Then you will be getting somewhere.

Tuitt and Watt are the guys who are the actual playmakers and space-creators for the pass rush. Heyward and Hargrave to a lesser extent. Dupree is the guy along for the ride.

Asking the question about Tuitt or Watt isn’t as interesting because there’s no controversy about their greatness.

If it turns out there has been no dropoff when Chickillo has been in for Dupree, then that would be very informative. It would tell us that Dupree has indeed just been along for the ride.

[steelreserve]

Asking the question about Tuitt or Watt isn’t as interesting because there’s no controversy about their greatness.

If it turns out there has been no dropoff when Chickillo has been in for Dupree, then that would be very informative. It would tell us that Dupree has indeed just been along for the ride.

That would just tell us that Dupree is better than Chickillo. They are both along for the ride.