Advertisement

No stars and low stars in high school, several Steelers outperformed their recruit rating

Ray Fittipaldo 8 years ago

In honor of National Letter of Intent day I thought we’d take a look back at some Steelers to see where they were ranked on their signing day. J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans often cites his 2-star status as a high school player as motivation for young players who don’t pull down the 4 and 5-star rankings.

Watt isn’t alone in the NFL. In fact, 4- and 5-star rankings don’t really mean much when it comes to which players are getting drafted three and four years later.

Antonio Brown was a no-star recruit coming out of his Miami area high school. He had to go to Central Michigan, where he was teammates with Watt, to hone his craft. The Steelers saw potential in him and selected him in the sixth round of the 2010 draft. He is now a two-time All-Pro and regarded as the best receiver in the NFL.

Le’Veon Bell was a 2-star recruit coming out of his Groveport (Ohio) high school. He played at Michigan State, but on his ESPN recruiting page that still exists the other schools listed included Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan and Marshall. Now the player that Ohio State did not want is an All-Pro in the NFL and mentioned along with Adrian Peterson as the best running in the league.

The Steelers’ other All-Pros were ranked higher. Maurkice Pouncey was a 4-star recruit and chose from among Florida, Florida State and USC. David DeCastro was a 3-star center when he signed with Stanford.

Depending on the recruiting service, 5-star recruits are the players who are judged to be the top 50 players in their recruiting class, or for some in the top 25 or 30. Regardless, those 5-star recruits don’t always have a strong track record of landing in the first round when it’s their turn to be drafted.

Many lower ranked, whether they were underrated to begin with or simply developed their skills better in college, get drafted higher every year.

Watt or Pitt’s Aaron Donald are generally regarded as the top defensive linemen in the NFL. Many consider them to be the best defensive players in the league.

Like Watt, Donald wasn’t a highly rated high school recruit. He was a 3-star prospect coming out of Penn Hills and didn’t have the big name schools after him.

Four years later, he was the No. 14 overall pick in the 2014 draft.

In the same draft, Khalil Mack was the No. 5 overall pick by the Raiders. He was a 2-star recruit and played in relative anonymity at the University of Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference.

I can’t say for sure because I might have missed one, but I couldn’t find a former 5-star recruit on the Steelers.

Here are some other notable Steelers and where they ranked:

Cam Heyward: 4 stars

Jarvis Jones: 4 stars

Ryan Shazier: 4 stars

Martavis Bryant: 4 stars

Markus Wheaton: 3 stars

*In case you missed it, Dri Archer, the Steelers’ third-round pick in 2014, signed a futures contract with the Jets. There are no guarantees with a futures contract. Hundreds of players sign them every offseason as rosters expand to 90 players for OTAs, minicamp and training camp.

Archer, you’ll remember, had a chance to sign with the Steelers as a practice squad player after they cut him in November. He had a chance to sign with other teams and their practice squads and refused. Now he’ll be one of 30 or so nameless faces in Jets camp this summer trying to hook on like an undrafted free agent.