Pittsburgh Steelers: 10 Best draft picks under Kevin Colbert

Kevin Colbert has been the general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers for nearly two decades. The team has drafted many star players during his time in charge.

When it comes to making trades and flashy moves, few NFL teams are more conservative than the Pittsburgh Steelers. With that in mind, the team has a very special rookie who just started his first training camp.

The Steelers made the rare trade to move up and pick Devin Bush from Michigan in this year’s draft. The hope is that Bush, who was the second-best linebacker in a class that was very thin at the position, will revive some of the defensive versatility that was lost when Ryan Shazier got hurt back in 2017.

The move to take Bush and his impending rookie season got me thinking about all of the great players Pittsburgh has drafted under the watch of general manager Kevin Colbert. Colbert took over before the 2000 season, meaning he has been through 20 drafts and selected over 100 players. While only a handful of those players will make it to Canton, many of them are local legends and have found a place in Steelers lore.

This article will focus on players who were great during their time with the Steelers and who are closely tied to the franchise. Those two elements are combined to figure out the player’s positioning. For that reason, you won’t see players like Chris Hope or Emmanuel Sanders on the list. Sanders has been to two Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl, but he accomplished both of those things with the Denver Broncos.

Hope did win a Super Bowl with Pittsburgh, but he spent just four seasons of his 11-year career in the Steel City. I’m looking at players who fit with the Steelers organization and made their mark in Pittsburgh.

But first, some notable omissions from the top 10.