Good morning,

    One thing we probably can eliminate now as it pertains to the first night of the draft: The Steelers will not be trading up in that first round from No. 17.
    The quality in this draft is just not there in the first 15 picks, at least not compared to most years. A pick at No. 17 may be worth just as much for the available talent as No. 5, so there’s no sense throwing other draft choices away to try to move up, and there’s no sense paying a bigger contract to draft that high.
    The better move might be to go down, but this will be a buyer’s market, so it should be more expensive to do that. Many of those teams at the top would like to do the same thing, move down  – and as I said, what’s the advantage for someone to give up more draft picks to move higher and not get a player of more quality?
    Therefore, this draft in the first round should have a chilling effect on trades. Why trade up when you have to give something for nothing?
    History tells us, though, that teams evaluate different players much differently and if they see one they want and don’t think he’ll last, it could prompt a trade.
  It’s why the Steelers were able to draft Rod Woodson wit the 10th pick in 1987. It’s my ultimate example. Woodson should have been gone in the top five, but he kept sliding to the Steelers because Cleveland, at No. 5, thought Mike Junkin of Duke would make a great linebacker; because the Arizona Cardinals thought Kelly Stouffer of Colorado State would give them a franchise quarterback, and because Buffalo picked Penn State linebacker Shane Conlan instead of Woodson.
       I thought the only way the Steelers would get Woodson that year was to trade higher in the first round, and I suggested that in a story in the Post-Gazette that morning. Right man, wrong scenario. I should have remembered who coached the Steelers.
 With Noll as their coach, the Steelers never, ever traded a first-round draft pick, nor traded higher or lower in the first round until his second-last year. In 1990, they traded down with Dallas to draft tight end Eric Green. The Cowboys, at the Steelers’ old spot at No. 17, chose Emmitt Smith.
   Maybe the Steelers should just stay put at No. 17 this year.
 Onto some stuff:
 --- Another thing about this draft that has become as obvious as the Steelers’ need to find a top halfback is there is no halfback rated anywhere near as high as No. 17 in the first round. Alabama’s Eddie Lacy is considered the best and some, like NFLDraftScout, rate him a borderline first-rounder. Teams that need a back, though, may reach for him and while you can consider the Steelers one of those, I don’t think they’d reach that low in the first round. Another reason they won’t is there are plenty of good backs who are rated in the third round. Le’Veon Bell of Michigan State is an example of a back who should be available in the third round.
--- Tony Villiotti continues to issue outstanding statistical analysis at draftmetrics.com. I wrote about the Pittsburgh native last year, and I again recommend his site to give you different perspectives on the draft’s history.
--- One of our readers did the heavy lifting and found the two stories I mentioned Monday that I wrote in 1987 about Jackie Robinson, and another on the first black Pirates player, Curt Roberts. You can read them here if you’d like, the Roberts story below that of the one on Robinson:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tMtRAAAAIBAJ&;sjid=6m0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5191%2C5029967
--- If you missed it, Monday’s Monday's draft visitors: Syracuse SS Shamarko Thomas; Utah State CB Will Davis; San Diego State OT Nic Embernete”

   --- More YOU are Kevin Colbert replies:
--- I'd trade down to get as many picks as possible. I'm dangerously
close to not being able to field enough players to actually play games
on Sundays, and I need as many cheap ones as I can get. And anyway,
I've usually done as well or better in the later rounds as I have in
the early ones.
--- ROUND 1 PICK 17 Select ILB Arthur Brown or LB Jamie Collins.
ROUND 2 FS Philip Thomas
ROUND 3 RB Christine Michael

--- ROUND 1: Jarvis Jones, OLB, Georgia or Tyler Eifert, TE, Notre Dame if Jones isn't there.
ROUND 2: Marcus Lattimore, RB, South Carolina. He's going to be an impact RB for years to come, although he'll be one we might have to wait on to get healthy. It's a bit early for him based on his injury history, he I think he'd be worth it. If he's not there, I'd go WR. I'd like Robert Woods of USC if he's there, followed by Terrance Williams of Baylor or DeAndre Hopkins of Clemson.
ROUND 3: I'd go RB if Lattimore isn't there, preferably LaVeon Bell of Michigan State or Montee Ball of Wisconsin. If Lattimore, Bell, or Ball aren't picked, I'd go DL. Either Bennie Logan, DT from LSU or Alex Okafor from Texas.

First Published: April 6, 2016, 4:15 p.m.