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NFL Draft 2011 Grades: How Should Browns, Steelers Grade Out?

SB Nation’s Bryan Gallifond has NFL Draft grades for all 32 teams. It’s interesting stuff, although he doesn’t seem to weight traded 2012 draft picks very heavily, which leads to weirdness like the Falcons getting a higher grade (B-) than the Browns (C+). The Browns, it seems to me, pretty clearly killed it in the first round, getting a ton of value out of the No. 6 overall pick. I would give them an A, straight up, and I say this as a Steelers fan.

The Chiefs get the lowest grade, with a C for reaching for Pitt receiver Jon Baldwin. The Titans and Vikings get somewhat kinder treatment for reaching for quarterbacks Jake Locker and Christian Ponder, respectively, but maybe they get some slack for picking quarterbacks, who tend to be unpredictable. The Steelers get a B-:

The Steelers aren’t a team that drafts for need; they draft for depth and their system. DE Cameron Heyward addresses both, and was just about perfect value-wise. There are still glaring needs to fill, however.

True, but I’m not sure what grade the Steelers would have gotten had they taken a lesser talent like Aaron Williams, who fills a more obvious need. Other than getting creative by trading up or down, it isn’t really clear to me what the Steelers could have done better.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.