The Pittsburgh Steelers finished the 2022 season with a strong surge to 9-8 after a dismal 2-6 start to the season. While the Steelers fell just short of the playoffs, they will also enter the NFL Draft with their highest pick (17th overall) since 2014. However, it is not just in the first round where the Steelers can land an impact player. As a result of the Chase Claypool trade with the Chicago Bears providing the Steelers with an additional second round pick, the Steelers have the opportunity to add a first round level prospect that otherwise might not fall to them, similar to what happened with Dermontti Dawson.
Steelers' Dermontti Dawson had a Hall of Fame career. | Photo: Profootballhof.com
Steelers 1998 Draft Goals
Entering the 1988 NFL Draft, the Steelers wanted to strengthen their pass rush and the middle of the offensive line, particularly at center. The Steelers surprised a lot of draft analysts when they used their first round pick on Aaron Jones, an undersized defensive end from Eastern Kentucky who had only 9 sacks as a senior. Jones boastfully predicted a 16-sack season as a rookie, and the sack per game metric held true through Week 1. However, Jones would only add half a sack over the next 15 games and was cut following the 1992 season after an underwhelming run.
The Steelers’ second round pick in 1988 also came from the state of Kentucky and Dermontti Dawson would become the team leader of the offensive line over his Hall of Fame career. It seemed evident to everyone that ever saw him that Dawson was a special type of athlete. As a track and field star at Bryan Station High, Dawson won the state championship in both the shot and discus as a junior and senior. College recruiters believed that he was capable of making the Olympics, which interested Dawson to a point.
Dermontti Dawson per On The Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers: Behind the Scenes with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the NFL Draft:
“I’d love to have gone to the Olympics, but you don’t make any money in the Olympics from track and field.”
Dawson did not play football in high school till his junior year. When University of Kentucky football coach Jerry Claiborne first saw Dawson at the state track and field meet, he reached out to the Bryan Station High football coach to inquire why Dawson was not on the list of football prospects. That call led to Dawson being talked into going out for the football team the following season and eventually to college at the University of Kentucky under Claiborne.
After Claiborne experimented with playing Dawson at defensive tackle, Dawson would move to right guard and became the starter his junior season. It was an extremely fortunate failed experiment, as Kentucky’s trapping offense was the perfect way to catch the attention of Steelers head coach, Chuck Noll, and led to then-scout Tom Donahoe taking a closer look.
Tom Donahoe per On The Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers: Behind the Scenes with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the NFL Draft:
“Dermontti was an undersized guard at the University of Kentucky. I remember going to scout him, and it had rained that day and they practiced in the gym. Guys were slipping and sliding all over the place except for Dermontti. He was like on ice skates on an icy surface and everybody else was on the ice in street shoes.”
The Steelers were not the only team interested in the future Hall of Fame center. | Photo: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Giant Problem for the Steelers
Even though the Steelers did not see Dawson play center until the Senior Bowl, his experience playing the trap blocking style that Noll preferred, along with his versatility and ability to long snap (along with a 4.8 time in the 40-yard dash) had him high on the Steelers draft board. The only problem was they weren’t the only team to take notice, as Bill Parcells and the New York Giants also were high Dawson.
If Dawson had one drawback, standing 6’2” and 282 pounds, he was below-average size for a guard and the transition to center was still just a projection. So, when the time came to turn in their draft card, Parcells opted for size and drafted 6’5”, 291-pound tackle, Eric Moore with the 10th pick and 6’7”, 305-pound tackle, Jumbo Elliott with the 36th pick. Dawson would last until the 44th overall pick when the Steelers made him their selection.
It wasn’t until Ron Erhardt (the Giants offensive coordinator in 1988) arrived in Pittsburgh that Dawson learned how close he was to being the Giants first round pick.
Ron Erhardt per On The Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers: Behind the Scenes with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the NFL Draft:
“Daws, we liked you. We were going to take you in the first round, but Bill got cold feet and went with Eric Moore. We should’ve taken you.”
The Steelers were not unaware about Dawson’s lack of size and lack of experience at center, which influenced the selection of Chuck Lanza in the third round.
Tom Donahoe per On The Clock: Pittsburgh Steelers: Behind the Scenes with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the NFL Draft:
“He was an undersized guy, but he had amazing athletic ability and explosion, and we were really looking for a center. The year we drafted him, we took Dermontti and Chuck Lanza because we were determined to get at least one center out of it, and Dermontti had played guard primarily in college.”“He was a unique player, and what he enabled our offense to do with a center who could run and move laterally and get out in space and block in front of screens, quick throws to the outside, he set a rare standard. And now a lot of teams are doing that with their centers and trying to find guys who are more athletic and can do it. But Dermontti was really the first of that type of center who could get out in space and do what he did.”
Lanza lasted only two years, never made a start, and his Steelers career is most remembered being the center who replaced Dawson (altitude sickness) and the botched shotgun snap that hit Bubby Brister’s shin, resulting in the game ending fumble vs. the Denver Broncos that ended the 1989 playoff run.
The Steelers found their center by drafting the best available prospect. A player with a first round grade that slipped to the second round. Here’s to them finding a similar measure of success in the 2023 draft.
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