The NFL Draft process is as intriguing as it is unpredictable. Most players have a handful of teams that they’ve communicated extensively with and know they’re on the radar. Sometimes, though, teams will select players that they had minimal contact with during the pre-draft process. That seems to be the case for former Pittsburgh Steelers pick Bryant McFadden.
McFadden joined Rob King and Wes Uhler on Steelers Nation Radio from the combine this week and reflected on his draft process with the Steelers.
“I didn’t have any interaction that I recall during the Senior Bowl. But I was hearing that my name was being brought up in the building from my former Florida State teammate Chris Hope, who was a part of the Steelers at the time,” McFadden said. “I guess they were asking him questions about me because they knew we played together. Then, when I came to Indy, I had a formal interview with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I remember it like it was yesterday. I walked into the hotel room and the first person I saw and recognized was Mean Joe Greene.”
McFadden said that he was surprised to see Greene because he was unaware of his role with the team at the time. At the time, Greene was a special assistant for player personnel in Pittsburgh’s front office.
“After that, it was nothing from Pittsburgh. I didn’t have a phone call. I didn’t have a visit to Pittsburgh. Everything kind of went silent. So I kind of felt like I might not be on their radar.”
Ultimately, the Steelers used their second round pick, number 62 overall, to select McFadden out of Florida State in the 2005 Draft. In his first season, McFadden and the Steelers won Super Bowl XL. He was also a member of the Super Bowl XLIII championship team in 2008 before leaving in free agency to join the Arizona Cardinals in 2009 only to return to Pittsburgh one year later.
When the Steelers brought McFadden into the fold, the cornerbacks room included Deshea Townsend as the veteran starter and Ike Taylor who was coming into his own as a young corner. Ricardo Colclough had been drafted in the second round the year prior and even though his NFL career ultimately didn’t pan out, he was still a young, recent high draft pick.
The Steelers may not have planned to invest an early pick in a cornerback given the players that they already had on their roster. Or maybe Pittsburgh’s lack of communication with McFadden leading up to the draft was a result of the intel that Chris Hope was able to provide the team about his former college teammate. NFL teams will use any information they can get their hands on during the fact-finding phase of the draft process. McFadden, though, believes that his experience wasn’t an outlier.
“Oddly enough, the team that you rarely hear from is the team that usually drafts you,” McFadden said. “I don’t know if that’s a Pittsburgh thing. They kind of show you they’re not really interested. But they are.”
As Draft season unfolds, fans and pundits alike (including McFadden) will offer their best guesses about what will unfold. The truth is, even the players involved often know very little about what teams plan to do with their picks.
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