I have no problem with Green Bay cornerback Charles Woodson winning the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.
What is a head scratcher: Woodson winning in a landslide considering that an argument can be made that he is not even be the best cornerback in the NFL.
That honor may belong to Darrelle Revis.
The former Aliquippa High and Pitt star got half the votes (14) that Woodson did for the award that Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison won last year. That is at best an oversight and at worst an injustice considering the season Revis had for the New York Jets.
He completely shut down premier and pedigreed wide receivers all season. And the sporting world owes Revis a collective thank you card for twice exposing Chad Ochocinco as the silly sideshow that the Bengals caricature/wide receiver has become.
What is interesting when it comes to Revis is what may have been had the Jets not stolen him with the 14th overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft — one slot ahead of the Steelers.
There is no guarantee that Steelers would have taken Revis over Lawrence Timmons even if they would have had a choice between the two.
Remember that Timmons’ selection came before the Steelers knew whether Harrison could replace Joey Porter — and when they still had the expendable Clark Haggans at the other outside linebacker spot.
The Steelers had such a need at outside linebacker that they used their first two picks in the 2007 draft on them.
Still, the Steelers have done remarkably well in the first round of the draft under director of football operations Kevin Colbert. And given the extra homework they would have done on Revis since he is a local product, it is fairly safe to assume they would have made the right call if given the choice between Revis and Timmons.
Imagine what the Steelers’ defense would be with Revis, a true shutdown corner, who you know, can actually catch.
They could have kept the steady Larry Foote, who is a better fit at inside linebacker than Timmons even though the latter is more athletic and arguably the Steelers’ hardest hitter. And they wouldn’t go into this year’s draft needing to address cornerback in the early rounds of it.
In the end, the Steelers didn’t get the chance to take Revis, and maybe that is a good thing. Had they taken Timmons over Revis they might have looked as bad as the Raiders, Buccaneers, Dolphins and Texans.
Those teams took JaMarcus Russell, Gaines Adams, Ted Ginn Jr. and Amobi Okoye before the Jets traded up to select Revis.
Yikes.
January 13th, 2010 - 9:25 am
Could this be the year the Steelers mimic the Jets and trade up for Joe Hayden? What a change a healthy Troy Polamalu and a young ball hawking corner would make in that pass defense. One can only dream.
January 13th, 2010 - 11:14 am
I blame Bruce Arians for the fact that Revis is not wearing the black and gold.
January 13th, 2010 - 11:24 am
What would have been?
It pains me to think about what should have been. We should have Larry Foote in the middle of this defense to stop the run. Timmons was a major dissapointment this season. Talking about picks we never had a chance to make are fun for fantasy, but letting go of Foote is a painful dose of reality. He was a draft pick that never missed games and he rarely missed assignments. He is one of the reasons we looked worse than the Raiders, Buccaneers, Dolphins and Texans. Those teams never expected to make the playoffs, we thought we could win the Super Bowl.
January 13th, 2010 - 2:01 pm
@Scott... me too. I think it was all Arian's fault that we did not get Revis. lol... you guys are too funny. I'm happy with Timmons as long as he can stay healthy. He's just starting. we could be a season away from being damn glad that we did select Timmons. This, after all was his first year as starter and he didn't do badly. What? Do we think he's about as good as he's gonna get? Heck Naw. he's just getting started and that should be scarey. What's worse is that we have found a steal in Keyaron Fox and should be preparing to supplant farrior's starting position with Fox, although we damn well better keep Farrior.
I'm not even convinced that we need to draft a corner with some high pick. I think we should draft the best player available. This has worked wonders for this team. We are not in some must need panic mode. One of the things I like about Tomlin is that he does not go quickly into panic mode. He evaluates... maybe he should be evaluating himself the way he botched our lost golden opportunity to repeat, but still he does his homework and he will do the same when it comes to recommending draft picks.
Althought we will have a tougher go of it next season, I do expect a playoff run. There's no doubt in my mind we will bounce back and with a ferver.
January 13th, 2010 - 4:15 pm
These types of things work both ways. I remember back in 2004 reading that the Bills tried hard to trade up to pick 10 in the draft, in order to get Big Ben. Houston refused to make the deal, we took Ben at pick 11 and the Bills had to settle for J.P. Losman, and the rest is history. Does anyone really think we'd have 2 Superbowls in the last 5 years without Big Ben? Especially the last one less than 12 months ago?
p.s. Rodney - the Buccaneers finished 3-13 and the Dolphins finished 7-9, I can't see how the 9-7 Steelers looked worse than them.
January 13th, 2010 - 5:10 pm
Scott(No.#3) I think you might be right. During the draft they asked Arins to walk over the draft selection the had written down, but he threw it to them and they lost it. So they just decided to Pick Timmons.
January 13th, 2010 - 6:10 pm
Revis was on many fantasy boards as the Steelers pick in that draft. I couldn't believe we missed him by one draft position and as they say, everything is always crystal clear in hindsight. There was no way of guaranteeing he would develop into the corner he is today. It's always a gamble.
I think the Steelers did well with Timmons. Now drafting at 18th, we have a chance to improve the Secondary. Hopefully, we can find some players who are solid pass defenders. If we're lucky, we'll find someone exceptional.
January 13th, 2010 - 7:29 pm
I was thinking this same thing while reading another article that suggested the Steelers would be better off next year if they had Ike Taylor as the #2 corner and someone else as a shut down #1 playmaker/shutdown corner. That would leave Troy in the short/middle of the field -- ready to roam sideline to sideline -- the way the Packers used Charles Woodson (who returned 3 TD's for INT's...many of which was picked off in the short flat area of the field or over the middle). Maybe this strategy would have stopped Brian Leonard on 4th and 10 or Ray Rice on 4th and 5. The only question now is where do you find that corner? Draft and play right away is not the Steelers philosophy under Tomlin and free agency is too expensive. We can only dream of having Willie Gay, Burnett and Keenan Lewis being great #3, #4 corners in the nickel and dime. Although, I'd just as well take 3 good safeties on the team, which would allow Troy to do things he did in 2008 and be a rover type player.
January 15th, 2010 - 6:13 pm
Missing out on Revis was unfortunate, the biggest miss was the fact that Patrick Willis was the other linebacker picked only a few spots ahead of the Steelers that year. Now if we had Willis roaming the middle of our Blitzburgh defense THAT would be sweet!
Let it just be known that Arians is still the fool who convinced all the staff to pick the biggest bust of the draft with Matt Spaeth in the 3rd round. He sure showed his all world receiving skills that Arians said he had this year with his 5 receptions and 1 TD. Sure wish we could of had that pick back to get some depth at others positions that killed us this year.
See it all can be blamed on Arians, you just have to try a little harder!