As the only Big East player taken in the First Round of the NFL Draft, Jon Baldwin allowed the Big East to save some face. Not much, but some. As befits the present state of the conference, it should be expected that a lot of players will be taken from here on out. The players reflect the league. Not particularly strong at the top, but solid and mediocre all around. “Big East football. ACC-esque parity with fewer calories.”
So congrats to Jon Baldwin, the third Pitt Panther drafted in the 1st round in the last 5 years. He is Pitt’s 20th 1st round pick in the last 31 years. Baldwin was home with family when the call came.
“I felt blessed,” Baldwin said of his reaction upon receiving the telephone call from Chiefs coach Todd Haley. “I have been working toward this my whole life, and now I get the opportunity.”
After speaking at length to Haley, Baldwin said he turned to his father, Jeff, for a hug.
“He said, ‘Congratulations. This is something you have worked hard for. Now, go do what you do,’ ” Baldwin said.
The first thing…
Address every documented mistake you have made and prove you aren’t a bad seed.
The Chiefs have Jonathan Baldwin’s word, and maybe that’s enough. He said he’s a “good person,” and maybe he is. But for now, he is their newest draft pick — and, unlike last year, a player without a spotless background.
Maybe it’s nothing. That’s what Baldwin said late Thursday, anyway.
“I won’t be a problem,” said Baldwin, a wide receiver from the University of Pittsburgh. “I sat down with all the coaching staff and told them the kind of person I am. After they talked to me for about five minutes, they understood.”
Baldwin was charged in May 2009 with misdemeanor indecent assault, summary harassment and summary disorderly conduct after an alleged incident involving a female student on a bus. The charges were later dropped. More recently, Baldwin called out his quarterback at Pittsburgh and criticized his coaches earlier this year.
The outburst after Coach Wannstedt was fired and he said he was heading to the NFL seemed to be the bigger character issue. At least in terms of immediate reactions to how the pick was viewed.
Chiefs fans seem to be happy with the pick. Actually, increasingly excited might be a better way of putting it. Having Baldwin line-up on the other side of Dwayne Bowe gives the Chiefs a much more dynamic passing game — and filled one of their needs.
The Chiefs attacked their biggest positional need with their first-round pick, drafting University of Pittsburgh wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin.
The 6-foot-5, 228-pound Baldwin played three seasons at Pitt. He had a big sophomore season, catching 57 passes for 1,111 yards and eight touchdowns before slumping to 53 catches, 822 yards and five TDs as a junior last season.
“He had a big sophomore year,” Chiefs coach Todd Haley said. “(Pittsburgh) struggled in general this past year, which always hurts a receiver. Maybe he fell off the radar a little bit, so to speak.
“I’m excited to see what Jonathan Baldwin will become. He’s an exceptional talent.”
Congrats to Baldwin, and hopefully there will be a season this fall.
He will need to drastically improve his route running. The physical tools are all in place.
Congrats to Jon Baldwin for being selected in the 1rst Round by the KC Chiefs. Zeise’s PG article manages to spin it in a negative light however.(surprise, surprise)
As he mentions that Pitt has only had so many number 1 picks since 1990, check it out.
“Baldwin becomes just the 6th Pitt player since 1990 to be selected in the first round, joining Jeff Otah (2008), Darelle Revis (2007), Larry Fitzgerald (2004), Rueben Brown (1995) and Sean Gilbert (1992) in that club.”
He then goes even farther and suggests we haven’t even had that many since 1980:
“Pitt has also had only 19 guys selected in the first round since 1980 and Baldwin becomes the 20th.”
If you care to read the whole POS article, here it is:
link to post-gazette.com
Guess he never saw that Yahoo Sports/Rivals article last year, that had Pitt among the Top 5 of all colleges since 1980 with the players that performed the best in the NFL. He must have missed that one. Go figure.
I guess it’s always a good time to bash Pitt sports at the PG. Also to note, not a word or an iota of a word on the Front Page of the PG, nor on the Front WebPage of the Sports section of the PG concerning Pitt’s Baldwin being drafted in the 1rst round. And he didn’t even have to ‘Sneak In’. Oh if not for our dear friends over at the PG what on earth would we do.
HTP & FUPG
Comment by melvinbennett 04.29.11 @ 1:16 pm
A reunion perhaps.
My bad. Spokane Shock eh, I guess it’s better than starting to work at….. say…. IBM.
Now that Holmgren is team president, look for Browns to actually make wise draft picks
This is good news for Pitt recruiting and the Big East, even if JB has a tendency to talk out of his ….
DeJuan Blair was left on the bench again in the Spurs’ Game 6 loss on Friday.
This will be a point of contention for Spurs fans, but Zach Randolph may have been even more effective against Blair than he was against Antonio McDyess. That said, we think Blair should’ve been given at least a small chance to prove his worth on the court, as the end result for the Spurs speaks for itself. Apr. 30 – 12:52 am et
There is no doubt that the playoffs are played on a higher plane than the 82 game schedule where teams sometimes are on a roadtrip and have to play 2 nights in a row in different cities and/or play 3 games in 5 nights (again in different cities.) Popovich gave a lot of rest to the veterans Duncan and McDyess during the year while give DeJuan much PT but apparently it didn’t pay off too much in the playoffs.
Either Popovich panicked in early March and removed the youngest player(Blair) from the starting lineup or the Spurs old men, ran out of steam. Regardless, Blair was the 2nd best rebounder on the team and was also 2nd on the team in steals with nearly 100, which is incredible for a Center. Congrats to Sam Young for becoming a starter for Memphis, and dropping in 18 points in Game 5. Way to go Pitt guys!
Congrats to the newest members of the NFL via PITT football. Hope that Hynoski and Dom get a legit look in free agency once this strike / lock out is over.
Although the Browns and Eagles seem to like Pitt, the Steelers apparently do not. Curiously, in the decade since they began sharing the practice facility, they have yet to draft anyone from Pitt.
(Believe the last one was Poteat in late 90s)
I beginning to wonder if there is an unwritten rule that they won;t draft a Pitt player for fear of a conflict of interest. I know they could have used an ILB two years ago when McKillop lasted thru 5 rounds and a blocking TE when Byham didn’t go until the 7th.
Don’t really see a conspiracy yet but it is curious.
Frankcam, You’re right, Devine did not get drafted. Note that the BE did have five RBs drafted with Delone Carter being the 1st one chosen (over Powell, Lewis and Todman) Another possible surprise is that UConn FB Sherman was drafted ahead of the much more heralded TB Todman, although I assume that Sherman’s 62 career special team’s tackles had a lot to do with that.
BTW, Steelers also claimed that they would have taken Marino had they not been convinvced Bradshaw was healthy and would play for a few more years.
I really wasn’t sure about Romeus. He needs some bulk to play end for a 3-4 team. I’m not sure think he has the agility for utside backer. I think he will be a heck of a pash rusher from a 4-3 end position.
Just last year they drafted these two duds from Ohio State, Thaddeus Gibson & Doug Worthington both were cut and never played a down for the Stillers. Also Chris Scott a 5th Round pick was cut last year. Your memory isn’t to good.
From 2009, the aforementioned Urbik in Round 3, and some dweeb from Penn State, A.Q. Shipley were cut. A. Q.(lol) I don’t know any football player in the history of the NFL that was good named A. Q..
The year before in 2008, they missed with Sweed in Round 2, Tony Hills in Round 4 was cut (bust), some schlump from Iowa, Mike Humpel in Round 5 was cut.
Just to refresh your memory, in 2007, they even had the gall to draft some schmuck from Rutgers instead of anyone, someone from Pitt. And they promptly cut the Rutgers schmuck.
Every other year it seems like they draft some loser from Va. Tech who never make the team. Worilds was the first, but they wouldn’t cut him since he was drafted in Round 2 and that would make them look too foolish. They will more than likely in a few years.
2005 brought has such notable as Fred Gibson, Rian Wallace from Temple (ee gads), Shaun Nua and a RB from all places Northwestern, Noah Herron. I find it hard to believe there was nobody coming out of Pitt they could have drafted instead.
2004 brought has the infamous Matt Kranchick, TE from State Penn in Round 6. This loser didn’t even start(hardly even played) for State Penn, yet the Stillers felt the urge to draft the loser.
That year also brought us household names, Nathaniel Adibi (another loser from Va. Tech), Bo Lacy & Drew Kaylor. More household names. And I forgot Eric Taylor from football powerhouse Memphis. Nobody from Pitt was worthy yet again.
2006 had a bevy of losers who are no longer Stillers, Willie Reid, Orien Harris, Omar Jacobs,
Charles Davis, Marvin Phillip & the another Va. Tech loser Cedric Humes, not to be confused with Fumes, as in stinks.
In fact since 2001, 10 years, the Stillers have drafted more players from Temple, Tusculum, Bowling Green & Kent State, football powerhouses all, than they have from Pitt. No they don’t have any prejudices of Pitt players. They just don’t draft them.
I hope that refreshes that memory of yours. Are you sure you went to Pitt?
When they passed on ALL the Great Players Pitt had in the mid ’70’s to the mid 80’s who went on to become NFL All-Pros I learned then, all I needed to know about the Stillers and their attitude towards Pitt players.
Perhaps you’re too young to know or remember. I do know and I do remember.
For every Sweed there is a Wallace, Brown, Sanders, Ward, etc. For every Gibson there’s a Foote. Some are Cocloughs some are Taylors. Perfect, of course not.
I can’t imagine how a winning team that is draft built is one of the top teams in the league can’t draft.
Not to mention it is a little harder to make the Steelers than most teams. A lot of these players went on to success elsewhere because they couldn’t make the depth chart with the Steelers. So you can have tha Raiders, Cowboys, Browns, Bengals, Bills, CArdinals, Chiefs, Seahawks, Dolphins, etc of the world. Everybody else will take Steeler drafts.
HTscriptP
The point of the post was not that the Stillers don’t draft some players who pan out, the point is they don’t draft players from Pitt. You mean they had no need for guys like Curtis Martin, Rueben Brown, Kevan Barlow, Larry Fitzgerald, Antonio Bryant, Gerald Hayes, Shawntae Spencer, H.B. Blades, LeSean McCoy and a whole host of others who were drafted by other NFL teams, just like the 5 this year, Baldwin, Sheard, Lewis, Pinkston & Romeus. In fact a lot of NFL draft experts had Sheard rated much higher than the Stillers #1 pick, Heyward, yet they chose a guy who had 3 sacks his senior year at Ohio State over the Pitt guy. This after they had 2 Defensive line picks last year from Ohio State who were both BUSTS! I say your full of shit, you get serious.
I joke, but I do see your point.
As I had posted, I thought Byham would have been good. But I haven’t seen anyone who had Sheard rated higher than Heyward. Especially at defensive end.
Nice of you to change your argument from the Steelers draft busts and stiffs to they don’t draft Pitt players. I would agree that they rarely draft Pitt players, especially recently. But these are two completely separate arguments. Many of those Pitt players would have been great. But some would never have played in the Steelers scheme.
If you really want to make a point, who should they have not drafted when you wanted them to draft these players? Same year, same position.
This year alone:
Baldwin (character ?’s, Steelers didn’t take a wr, not a need for 1st round)
Sheard (an outside lb in a 3-4 defense, Steelers need was defensive end) Outside backer was a 5th round pick, not 2nd.
Lewis – Possible pick but does he have the speed for 3rd down back?- Also, picked much high than Steelers rb pick. Not as big a need apparently.
Pinkston – Not enough value as 2nd round tackle; Was he a better choice in the 5th than Steelers guard in the 6th. I think that is a close one.
Romeus – with that many injury ?s I think he went right where he should have been drafted. Was he worthy of 1st rd pick instead of Heyward? that’s laughable.
2 busts from OSU last year, Worthington a 7th round pick? First time I’ve heard of a 7th round pick called a bust… Gibson was a small de drafted to be converted as outside lb. totally different position than defensive line. One of the hardest judgements to make. Woodley, Lloyd, Gildon adjusted well. Richardson, Jackson were complete whiffs.
I totally agree I would like to see more Pitt players drafted by the Steelers, but it is a tough spot. When a guy like Ricketts busts, it can leave a sour taste in the area. that’s something I would want to avoid if at all possible. If I were the Steelers front office, I am beginning to think I would avoid drafting Pitt players because of sentiments like these.
And sorry for the name change, Bowling Green Panther = Joe. Mistype on my part.
Plus, you don’t think Rooney would throw Tom Bradley a bone if he were heading the program?
They have drafted Ricketts, Olsavsky and Poteat. Didn’t they also draft a safety named Woods in the mid 80’s? After the way Ricketts worked out, I don’t blame them for being hesitant.
Now, not to expand the plot, but how many players from State Penn have they drated since 1989? About 4 or 5 from PSU and 3 from Pitt. Maybe they just dislike PA. (lol)
All valid draft busts, but look at the ones that panned out and compare that result to the other NFL teams. I would guess they stack up pretty well. As for calling me out, come on now. I would love to see all draft able Pitt players cross the hall to the Steeler locker room. No need to argue to the level you do. I bleed panthers.
question your own abilities first.
Un f’n real.
Pitt was coming off a dreadful decade of the 90’s and trying to resurrect it’s program in the 2000’s. A bone thrown here & there by the Steelers could only help in that regard. Not that Pitt didn’t produce some real quality players who could have helped the boys in Black & Gold. I’ve listed a few of them above.
Excuses can always be made why they didn’t draft this Pitt player and that Pitt player. Bottom line, they haven’t drafted one since Hank Poteat in 2000.(and they promptly got rid of him after 2-3 years) Nor have they signed many (any) as free agents, basically to invite to them training camp, pay them a few bucks and the kid can always say later in life, he once wore the Steeler uniform and made a tackle or a catch.
@ Cool Hand Nuke, I think it actually started with Tony Dorsett. How they let him get out of town is beyond me and then he ends up on their arch rival then, the Cowboys. But hey even coming off of Pitt’s 1976 National Championship, not one single Panther off that team was drafted by the hometown team. And back then there were 12 frickin rounds!!
Hey but check this out, our Stillers did draft one of our favorites…… Sal Sunseri in the 10th round in 1982. Go frickin figure. LMAO
While the BE has an edge in BB talent, especially due to NYC/NJ, Philly and DC … you cannot say the same for FB or baseball
