Just Throwing Darts...
Former Steelers Personnel Director Art Rooney, Jr. on whether his team was “just throwing darts” in the lower rounds of the NFL draft: “Oh, no, no, no! We never threw darts! [Irritated] Who are you talking to? We never threw darts! We worked our asses off creating that list of 200 players! Hey, we didn’t come up with guys like Donnie Shell and Randy Grossman by throwing darts. You never tell a personnel guy that he’s throwing darts!”
Wrong choice of words...
AJR: Yeah, it sure was. But that’s not to say we didn’t make mistakes. I remember running into Don Shula at a banquet years later. He said, “Sit down here and talk to me. Before you hired Chuck, you guys were all set to draft Terry Hanratty with the number one pick, weren’t you?” He was poking fun a little bit, but we actually did consider taking Hanratty in the first round of the ’69 draft. He was a local kid and a Notre Damer. Heck, we ended up taking him in the second round when he should’ve gone in the fourth. Taking him in the first round would’ve been a disaster.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ crown jewel was the famous draft of 1974. The names read Swann and Lambert, Stallworth and Webster. We could spend hours here.
AJR: We could, and I’d enjoy every minute.
First, Lynn Swann. According to the BLESTO scouting reports, he was highly regarded but had some flaws.
AJR: It was his speed that concerned people. I visited USC the fall of Lynn's senior year. Coach [John] McKay drove me around on his golf cart telling me about all his senior NFL prospects. USC was the Mecca of prospects back then, complete heaven for scouts. He drove me by each player. Wow! There were a lot of good ones. Then he showed me Lynn, who he said was his best. Too small and too slow, however, was the word from the scouts.
Swann was truly a great, competitive athlete who made big plays in the big games consistently. Physically he moved like the greatest Olympic gymnast you ever saw on TV. The only difference was when the floor exercise ended for the gymnast he wouldn’t get belted in the teeth by a defensive back. Well, Swann could take that hit and hang onto the ball. We all liked him, but that 4.6/40 was a killer for the first round.