And on Friday, the Steelers paid the piper.
Trades have their consequences. The Steelers knew that when they traded up 10 spots in the first round to snatch linebacker Devin Bush. The consequence was sending their second-round draft pick to Denver, which froze them out of participating in the run of defensive backs and wide receivers in that round.
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Four cornerbacks went in the first eight picks of the second round, where 11 defensive backs were drafted overall to go with seven wide receivers. The Steelers have needs at both positions and showed it with their two picks Friday night in the third round, a wide receiver and a cornerback.
They drafted Toledo wide receiver Diontae Johnson at No. 66, the second pick in the third round. He was the 10th wide receiver drafted. With their next pick in the third round, at No. 83, they drafted cornerback Justin Layne of Michigan State. Layne was the 17th defensive back drafted and the 11th cornerback.
That’s not exactly prime choice.
The ghost of Antonio Brown still hung over the Steelers’ draft. They used the third-round pick they acquired from Oakland in the trade for Brown to draft Johnson, who will help replace him on their roster. Thursday, they traded their second-round pick to move up to grab Bush saying they would not have done so if they did not have this third-round pick they used on Johnson.
Coincidentally, Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes was the former Steelers wide receiver who announced the pick of Johnson in Nashville. It is a coincidence because when the Steelers traded Holmes to the New York Jets in 2010, they ultimately used that trade to make another and use that to draft Brown in the sixth round.
Therefore, the Holmes trade that begat Brown begat Diontae Johnson for the Steelers early in the third round Thursday night.
More coincidences: Like Brown who came from Central Michigan, Johnson played at a MAC school. He’s not big at 5-foot-10, 183 pounds, nearly identical to Brown’s 5-foot-10, 181 pounds. And like Brown, he returns punts, not to mention kickoffs.
The difference: The Steelers drafted Brown in the sixth round, and as a third-rounder, if Johnson can match half of what Brown has done in the league, the Steelers will be thrilled.
“AB, he’s a great receiver, one of the guys I look up to in the league,’’ Johnson said.
The Steelers thus have virtually completed the overhaul of their receiving corps, turning it entirely over the past three years. They signed Donte Moncrief as an unrestricted free agent from Jacksonville to join JuJu Smith-Schuster, who made his first Pro Bowl in his second season last year, and James Washington as their top four. Smith-Schuster and Washington were second-round picks in each of the previous two drafts. They also have two veteran slot receivers in Eli Rogers and Ryan Switzer returning.
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Johnson ran a 4.53 in the 40 at the combine, the fastest he’s ever run, he said so he does not lift the Steelers’ speed at receiver.
“To me speed’s overrated,” declared another addition to the Steelers’ receivers, their new coach Darryl Drake. “I’m going to say this because if you look at the greatest receivers who played the game, those guys in the Hall of Fame, I know only . . . maybe two who ran a 4.4.” Randy Moss and James Lofton.
Drake noted that Jerry Rice, Chris Carter and Michael Irvin all ran 4.5 or slower. So did a receiver he coached with the Arizona Cardinals, Larry Fitzgerald.
Layne is the latest attempt by the Steelers to find competent cornerbacks. They have not had a cornerback make the Pro Bowl since Rod Woodson did so with them 23 years ago. They’ve drafted them high, traded for them and signed them as free agents over the past three seasons.
Their two projected starters both came from elsewhere. Their best is Joe Haden, who fell into their laps days before the start of the 2017 season when the Browns cut him. Steven Nelson signed as a free agent this year from Kansas City. They gave up last year on Artie Burns, who was their No. 1 draft pick in 2016.
Layne, at 6-foot-2 and 192 pounds, becomes the Steelers’ second-tallest cornerback and has decent speed at 4.5 in the 40. The Steelers will put him on the outside to begin.
With 10 cornerbacks drafted in front of him, what might have been the flaw in Layne’s game that dropped him to the second half of the third round?
“I’m not sure what flaw is,’’ said Teryl Austin, a new coach in the secondary for the Steelers. “I think it’s just a matter of flavor.”
The second day of the Steelers’ draft had a different kind of flavor than the first. Instead of aggressively moving higher the way they did on Thursday, they waited patiently for players to fall to them. They did fall and because of what they did a day earlier, they did not get anywhere near the pick of the litter. But then, neither was Antonio Brown when they drafted him in 2010.
(Photo of Diontae Johnson: Mark L. Baer / USA Today)