Three rounds, no corner

The Steelers went into the draft with four obvious needs: Cornerback, wide receiver, defensive line and inside linebacker.

OK, the inside linebacker need wasn't a great one, but they did want to upgrade the position after shuffling Vince Williams, Terrence Garvin, Kion Wilson and even safety Troy Polamalu through the position after Larry Foote was injured in the regular season opener last season.

Through the first three rounds of the draft, the Steelers have addressed two of those spots and kind of added a player to one of the others.

And with six picks remaining in the draft's final four rounds - one each in the fourth and seventh rounds, and two each in the fifth and sixth - don't be surprised if Pittsburgh moves around to grab some players it covets to fill the remaining needs.

It wouldn't shock me at all if the Steelers traded their fourth and a sixth round selection to move up to the early part of the fourth round today and acquire a cornerback.

I like Pierre Desir of Lindenwood, who is raw but still on the board, but there are still a number of developmental guys still available. At this point, however, you're going to be getting a guy who's too something: small, slow, raw, etc.

Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau did go on record Friday as saying he liked the team's DB depth.

@ LeBeau also went on record as saying that he expected both Ryan Shazier, the linebacker the Steelers selected in the first round, and defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt, whom they selected in the second round, to not only contribute this season, but to push hard for starting jobs.

That statement was completely out of character for the Steelers, but it does tell you a lot about the team's current depth.

Shazier and Tuitt are both talented, to be sure, but the days of taking guys and sitting them for a year are while they learn are out the window.

@ The one thing the Steelers have definitely done at this point is improve their team defense.

After the New England game last season, it was very apparent that they just didn't have the team speed on defense to compete with those kind of spread passing attacks.

But with the addition of safety Mike Mitchell in free agency and Shazier at linebacker, the Steelers have gotten a lot faster on that side of the ball.

@ Speaking of faster, it was all about the speed with third-round pick Dri Archer.

Archer was a guy I liked enough to preview on the draft series I did for ESPN 970-AM strictly because of his speed and versatility.

He was officially clocked at 4.26 seconds in the 40 at the combine, which is plenty fast enough, but a number of teams, including the Steelers, had him at sub-4.2.

Yes, he's only 5-8 and 173 pounds, but he's lightning in a bottle.

Archer also lined up in the slot on passing downs and caught 99 passes at Kent State, where he averaged 12 yards per reception and 7.2 yards per carry over the course of his career. He also scored four touchdowns on kickoff returns in just 18 career attempts since most teams tried to keep the ball away from him in that role.

Archer did have some fumbling issues in college - he had 13 in about 450 career touches - but he also scored 40 touchdowns in those 450 or so career touches. In fact, his 40 touchdowns were one off the team record of 41 set by one Josh Cribbs. And we all know what a pain in the behind Cribbs was to the Steelers over the years.

Could the Steelers have used a big receiver instead? Certainly. And there were still a number of them available, including Clemson's Martavius Bryant.

But Archer will have a bigger impact this season than Bryant ever would have. The Steelers will find ways to get the ball into his hands five or six times per game, and they will be five or six plays that will make everyone in the stadium hold their collective breath.

The Steelers took a chance a few years ago with Chris Rainey. Archer is Chris Rainey all over again, only a lot faster.

He could create all kinds of matchup problems. If you have him run routes out of the backfield, there's not a linebacker in the league who will be able to run with him.

And if you have to use a corner on him, that is one less corner to cover somebody else.

@ As for the big receiver, I still like what I saw from last year's sixth round pick, Justin Brown in practice over the final month or so of last season.

Brown is a big kid who showed some soft hands and the ability to high-point the ball. Ryan Moye was more polished and made more plays in the preseason last season, which is why he got the spot on the regular season roster last year, but I'm not counting Brown out of the competition this year.

There's also Darius Heyward-Bey hanging around.

@ The thing some people are forgetting about when they talk about the Steelers' passing game is the fact that LeVeon Bell is going to be a big part of it.

Despite missing three games at the start of last season, Bell nearly broke the team record for receptions by a running back. He'll do so this season and likely catch close to 70 passes.