What a year to be a sports fan from Pittsburgh or a Pittsburgh sports fan! First the Steelers win the Super Bowl, now the Pens win the Stanley Cup! Wow! What a great year!!!

Everyone counted the Pens out of this one being in Detroit for game 7, then Crosby goes out with a minor injury, it didn’t look good for the Pens. But.. someone forgot to tell the players that they had no chance to win this one because they played extremely well in game 7.

Congratulations to the Penguins for winning their 3rd Stanley cup! You guys deserved it!

It looks like the Steelers have drafted 8 players and have filled every need and are able to add depth to a roster of returning Super Bowl Champions!! I’m not gonna say REPEAT yet…

Here is a breakdown of the draft. Click the link to see the full profile on each player.

DL Evander ‘Ziggy’ Hood in the first round

G Kraig Urbik in the third round

WR Mike Wallace in the third round

CB Keenan Lewis in the third round

CB Joe Burnett in the fifth round

FB Frank Summers in the fifth round

DE Ra’shon ‘Sonny’ Harris in the sixth round

C Allan ‘A.Q.’ Shipley in the seventh round

TE David Johnson in the seventh round

As I posted earlier, the Steelers don’t have any huge holes to fill due to free agency so the first day of the draft was as predicted, boring.

There were a bunch of trades, and three quarterbacks among the top 17 picks. There were two centers picked in Round 1 for the first time in, well, forever, and another head-scratcher by the Oakland Raiders.

The NFL pushed the start of its 2009 draft back to 4 p.m. to accommodate ESPN, and whether the first 64 picks packed enough drama to merit the move can be debated. But for Steelers fans, the theme of the day took on the time-honored television phrase: stay tuned.

The Steelers closed the first round by picking Missouri defensive lineman Ziggy Hood, and when their turn came at the end of the second round, Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert and Coach Mike Tomlin surveyed their board and decided the best course of action was to defer. And so the Steelers ended the day by trading their second-round pick, plus their No. 4 selection, to Denver for both of the Broncos third-round picks – the 79th and 84th overall.

And so, when the draft resumes at 10 a.m. on Sunday, the Steelers will have three picks in the third round – the two they acquired from Denver – plus their own, which will be the 96th pick of the draft.

“It was a chance to pick up some extra picks,” said Colbert. “It was a nice group of guys who were left and rather just taking one of those guys I think we will have a good chance at getting three. It was inviting. Like I said hopefully we’ll come out of it with three quality guys tomorrow.

The 2009 NFL Draft is fast approaching and the Steelers have been hard at work in the war room. The draft team has been working very hard at choosing the right player for this year’s team. I’ve been thinking about the draft and the players we lost leading into this year and I’m not sure there is an immediate or emergency need.

Let’s look at who we have lost to other teams.

CB Bryant McFadden to Arizon
T Marvel Smith to San Francisco
WR Nate Washington to Tennesee
QB Byron Leftwich to Tampa Bay

I don’t really see anything that jumps out at me unless a couple of things happen. The first is QB Charlie Batch is still unsigned, so we don’t have a back up at this point. This could be an issue if Charlie isn’t re-signed and Charlie is getting up there in age. So, we will draft a QB but do we need one in the first round?

Nate Washington was a good WR when we needed a 3 WR set but I don’t think his leaving the team is a huge problem but WR Hines Ward is in his 11th year and I’m sure he’s thinking about retirement soon. He also had a pretty bad injury at the end of the season that may give him problems this year.

The offensive line looks to be intact, except for the departure of Marvel Smith, so we’ll need to draft for the O-Line but that can be later in the 3rd round or so.

Our defense is in pretty good shape as well but I think we could use a stud at DE or DL to solidify the front 3 for the future.

In my opinion, there isn’t a huge need so, you pick the absolute best player available when we pick and work from there. I don’t worry come draft time because the Steelers have continually, year after year, drafted some of the best players in the NFL. The do their homework and know what to look for when developing players to fit the system.

Here’s to #7!!!

Go Steelers!