Mike McCarthy first worked on an NFL coaching staff in 1993. A Super Bowl winner and potential future Hall of Famer, McCarthy has seemingly seen it all over that time.
Well, except for one thing.
“I laugh,” the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach said this week, “because my mother asks me every year if I’m going to the draft. I say, ‘No, I’m going to be in the draft room — again. for year 33.
“‘We don’t go to the draft.’”
One of the great misnomers and ironies in regards to the hoopla of the massive event that is Pittsburgh hosting the NFL Draft? Among the few in the city who will not and cannot attend the actual festivities are those who work in football operations for the Steelers.
For them, it’s business as usual. The coaching and scouting staffs will spend Thursday and Friday evenings and all day Saturday on Pittsburgh’s South Side — even as the eyes of the NFL world are a few miles away on the North Shore.
It doesn’t matter if the NFL Draft stage is in Green Bay (like it was last year), Washington D.C. (like it will be next year) or on the moon (don’t give Roger Goodell any ideas), the Steelers braintrust hunkers down in a second-floor “war room” at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
“We’re going to be busy,” McCarthy said.
The “we,” in this instance, includes McCarthy, general manager Omar Khan, assistant general manager Andy Weidl, director of college scouting Dan Colbert and several others (including, to some degree, team president Art Rooney II). They will remain laser-focused on what is an important draft for the football team that is the Steelers — even while the historic franchise that is the Steelers revels in hosting the event of the draft.
“I know personally, I always tell people how great the region is and how great the people are here in the community,” said Khan, a Louisiana native who has worked for the Steelers for 25 years. “It’s exciting that there are a lot of them that are going to experience it this week, so I’m excited.
“I’m sure we’re going to make the NFL proud here in Pittsburgh.”
Most Steelers fans are proud, too, that the city of Pittsburgh will show itself best this weekend. But if they had to choose one, many would probably prefer to feel more pride in that the choices Khan & Co. make with the Steelers’ selections among the seven rounds of the draft were the right ones.
With the draft about to commence — it gets underway 8 p.m. Thursday for Round 1, followed by Rounds 2-3 Friday starting at 7 p.m. and the remaining four rounds kicking off at noon Saturday — the Steelers hold 12 picks. It seems unlikely they use all 12, and having so many provides far greater flexibility than usual in pursuing options to trade up and grab a prospect management covets.
The Steelers currently have five of the first 99 selections. By comparison, they made only two of the top 122 picks during last year’s draft.
The extra picks (and additional premium selections) puts an extra layer of preparation and additional pressure on the Steelers’ scouting staff.
“I’ve put a lot on their plate over the last six weeks,” Khan said, “and I’m really proud about our process and how it came together.”
This year’s process was thrown a curveball in January when Mike Tomlin stepped down as coach. McCarthy brought in an almost-entirely new coaching staff — and with that, a tweaked philosophy on what types of players more ideally fit in to the offensive and defensive schemes.
It’s safe to say that no one in the Steelers’ football operations department was in his or her role at any point in which Tomlin wasn’t the head coach. None likewise has worked a draft in which the Steelers had 12 picks (the most players they have selected over the past 33 years is 11, in 1999).
Throw in that the time between picks has been trimmed in a league effort to streamline the presentation of the draft, and this is a unique year that presents extra stresses — even if none of them have to do with what city the league’s stage is set up.
The Steelers football operations staff insists it’s up to the challenge.
“I trust our process,” Khan said during a news conference Monday. “I’m confident saying right now that when we’re done on Saturday, we’ll have gotten 10, 12 (or) 14 (quality) players. I feel really good about where we’re at right now and all the work we put into it and how the board is stacked.
“I wish the draft was right now. We’re ready for it.”