When safety Ryan Mundy signed with the New York Giants on Thursday, it guaranteed that the 2008 draft class of the Pittsburgh Steelers is all gone nearly six years after they were drafted.
Most of that class has been gone for a while, as Mundy and running back Rashard Mendenhall were the only two remaining from it last season.
That draft will more than likely go down as one of the worst that general manager Kevin Colbert has ever had, at least from a snaps played standpoint.
According to Pro Football Focus, those seven draft picks combined to play 3,113 snaps outside of special teams during their time in Pittsburgh. 1,904 of the snaps came from Mendenhall, the lone player to really produce anything from that class, and thank God he did. He left for the Arizona Cardinals via free agency on Wednesday.
Two of the draft picks, linebackers Bruce Davis and Mike Humpal, washed out very quickly, and never played a snap. Wide receiver Limas Sweed dropped in every now and again to contribute 164 snaps. Offensive lineman Tony Hills stumbled around on offense for 43 plays and Dennis Dixon filled in at quarterback for 156 snaps. Mundy, believe it or not, played 848 snaps. He and Mendenhall combined to play 88.4% of the 3,113 snaps.
While Mendenhall certainly had his share of short comings, both on and off the field, he did produce 4, 210 total yards from scrimmage and scored 31 touchdowns. It\’s easy now to go back now and cherry pick that draft, but I still believe to this day that he was the correct selection. Had his rookie season not been wrecked by Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, he would have contributed even more. Had Twitter never been invented, and he hadn\’t fumbled in the Super Bowl, he might be viewed more favorable by a few more in the fanbase.
The rest of the picks, outside of Mundy, were flat out bad ones. Yes, even Dixon, who couldn\’t even beat out Charlie Batch or Byron Leftwich during his time on the roster.
Let\’s hope for our sake that the 2008 draft never gets repeated again, especially not in 2013.
