Well OK - I put way too much importance on the center

As I watched the late first round unfold and Mack and Wood both come off the board - 21 was way too high for Mack, and then 28 for Wood - which is probably about right I was wondering what things were like in the Steeler war room. My guess is that the Parish trade was being tweaked and negotiated with the Bills - but since they could not pull it off, the Bills filled a need. I am sure that the Steelers would have had some condition in the Parish deal to "protect" Wood.

From the PG this morning it sounds like the Steelers move quickly to plan B. Hood was a great value with the 32 pick - should be a starter in two years or less - and will play a ton this year in the rotation. If you have watched the Steelers these last few years, it is a bit of an oversimplification to call them a 3-4 team. I have seen them in a lot of 2 down lineman sets - and in four and even five at times. It will take time for Hood to pick-up the two-gap system, but he would appear to have both the desire and the ability to do so.

The second round had to be crazy - Ed B was surely lobbying hard for Fili - and I would wager that the Steelers tried hard to trade into the middle of round two for a shot at him - he would have given them a new, younger corp of d lineman to built on - much like the Timmons-Woodely pair did for the linebackers. They no doubt considered Unger a viable option if he fell to them at 64 - but doubt they tried to trade up for him.

So now they have 3 of the next 32 picks - don't be surprised if after the overnight analysis they have a target and try and package two of their third rounders to move into the top half of the round - there last two in the round would be enough on the point chart to move to the top of the round - and the 2nd and third could move them up and bring back a late 4 or early 5.

Of course they could just take the three players that fall to them - there are a ton of future NFL starters - and a few future stars left on the board - trick is figuring out which ones they are :-)

Will be tuning in early - don't want to miss the fun.