I was just going back through the drafts of the past as I often do and I noticed some disturbing things. While we have drafted some outstanding players in the past decade (Ben, Troy, Casey), we've also had our share of bad picks (Alonzo Jackson, Ricardo Colclough, Willie Reid). But that's not the point of this post. In picking some of the effective players we have now, we've passed up on some the premier talent in the league. I'd like to start with the 2008 draft. The Steelers selected Rashard Mendenhall. Mendy has turned into one of the more reliable backs in the league but do you know who was drafted directly after him? None other than Mr. 2000 Yards himself, Chris Johnson. Now, I like Mendenhall as much as the next guy but I would KILL to have Johnson on our team now. After Johnson, Dallas chose CB Mike Jenkins. He's an upgrade over William Gay blindfolded. Let's say, for the sake of this post, we chose Jenkins. In round 2, we chose Limas Sweed. I believe it is too early to call it quits on Limas but two picks after him, Baltimore chose Ray Rice. So now, (again for the sake of the post) let's say we chose Rice. Round three, we chose Bruce Davis, who is nowhere to be found now. The next pick after him is Steve Slaton. Realistically, this would never have been done since we would have already drafted Ray Rice but I was just making a point. And no one else really worth picking was still available. In round four, we swapped picks with NYG, which took us from 24th to 31st. Say we stay at 24, Austin Collie is available. We chose Tony Hills instead. Round five brought us Dennis Dixon. I can't really argue that pick. Hardly any talent was in round six or seven so I got nothing there. But look how different the team would have been based on one year! In 2007, we took Timmons in round one. Jon Beason was still available. In 2006, Willie Reid was chosen in round three, while Brandon Marshall was drafted 24 picks later. Same year we chose Marvin Philip in round six, only to have the Colts select Antoine Bethea six picks later. Undrafted that year: Miles Austin, Now don't take this post as a complaint or anything because after all, we did win the Superbowl last year but I can't help but wonder how dominant Pittsburgh would be with these other players