PITTSBURGH — Some Steelers draft classes have been better than others. The 1974 class of future Hall of Famers Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster, along with future Hall of Fame free agent Donnie Shell, is regarded as the best in NFL history.
Others have been pretty lousy. The 2016 class with Artie Burns and Sean Davis at the top comes to mind, most recently.
And one has been cursed. What could have been with the 2014 class with Ryan Shazier, Stephon Tuitt, Dri Archer and Martavis Bryant as the first four picks?
I repeat: What could have been?
With Tuitt's retirement Wednesday, no player from that class remains with the Steelers. Shazier had a serious spinal cord injury in 2017 that ended his career. Archer never established himself despite coming into the league with 4.26 speed. Tuitt had a fine career that was cut short by injuries and a family tragedy. Bryant was suspended twice with the Steelers and a third time with the Raiders because of substance-abuse issues.
All four have sad stories:
Ryan Shazier
He was on his way to stardom when he tackled Bengals wide receiver Josh Malone during a Monday night game in Cincinnati.
The aftermath was horrifying.
Shazier didn't get up as players from both teams knelt near him and prayed. They knew he was seriously injured. They always know when a player is in trouble.
"Ryan has no feeling in his lower body," Kevin Colbert told Mike Tomlin on the sideline later during that game.
Forget about football. There was fear Shazier wouldn't walk again. A lesser man might not have. But Shazier refused to give in to his injury, leaning on his faith and his belief in the power of a positive attitude. He became an inspiration to countless by the way he dealt with his circumstances. The night he walked across the stage during the 2018 draft to announce the Steelers' first-round selection of Terrell Edmunds was one of the most memorable in franchise history.
Shazier wrote a book, "Walking Miracle," detailing his journey back to a normal life. He also started the Ryan Shazier Fund for Spinal Rehabilitation to help others.
Shazier remains a powerful inspiration.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, they have failed in trying to find Shazier's replacement. They tried Sean Spence, Jonathan Bostic and Mark Barron with little success. They traded up in the 2019 draft to take Devin Bush with the 10th overall pick. That hasn't worked out, either.
Stephon Tuitt
He played seven seasons with the Steelers and was mostly productive, although injuries forced him to miss 20 games in his first six seasons. When he was healthy in 2020, he was a game-changer with 11 sacks, 25 quarterback hits and 11 tackles for loss.
But Tuitt missed all of last season after his younger brother, Richard Bartlett III, 23, was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Georgia in June. He elected to stand by his mother, Tamara Tuitt-Bartlett, who witnessed the accident, something no parent ever should have to see. He also kept his promise to his mother by finishing his work toward a degree from Notre Dame this spring.
"I know I am being called to move beyond the sport of football," Tuitt said in a statement Wednesday.
The Steelers defense wasn't the same without Tuitt in 2021, finishing last against the rush. It's easy to think it won't be much better without him this season.
"We're going to miss him," Cam Heyward said Thursday. "I was able to rely on him so much. We created a lot of havoc and had fun doing it."
Dri Archer
His speed was tantalizing, the third-fastest 40-yard time in NFL combine history at the time. The Steelers were convinced he could be their kickoff return man and a threat out of the backfield as a change-of-pace runner and pass catcher.
But Archer didn't even last two seasons with the Steelers before they cut him in November 2015. He returned 23 kicks and touched the ball on offense just 17 times, none in 2015.
Archer never played in the NFL again despite getting brief looks from the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
Martavis Bryant
What a waste of outstanding ability.
Bryant averaged 21.1 yards-per-catch as a rookie and had 14 touchdown catches in his first two seasons. His performance against the Bengals in the 18-16 in the wild-card playoff win after the 2015 season — the Vontaze Burfict/Adam Jones game — was sensational. He had a 44-yard run to set up a field goal and made one of the great postseason touchdown catches in franchise history when he maintained possession of the ball as cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick swiped at it, palming it in his right hand and pinning it against his legs as he got both feet down before doing a flip out of the end zone.
"He has no idea how good he can be," Ben Roethlisberger said of Bryant.
Bryant never realized his sizable potential. He was suspended for the first four games of the 2015 season and all of the 2016 season with the Steelers. He also was benched by Mike Tomlin for a game against Detroit in 2017 after ripping teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster on Instagram.
"JuJu is nowhere near better than me, fool," Bryant wrote. "All they need to do is give me what I want and y'all can have JuJu and whoever else ...
"I just want mines, period, point-blank."
The Steelers were fortunate to get a third-round pick in the 2018 draft when they traded Bryant to the Raiders. They used that pick to trade up to take Mason Rudolph earlier in the third round.
Bryant played in just eight games with the Raiders and had 19 catches before being suspended indefinitely in December 2018 for violating terms of his conditional reinstatement from his previous ban. His NFL career came to a sad conclusion.
One more time ...
What could have been?
