Dennis Dixon tore his ACL last season and that’s one of the big reasons that he dropped so far in the draft.  Dixon is a good athlete when healthy but he’s really skinny and might not be able to handle the punishment that comes with being an NFL QB.  Dixon is 6′3″, 195 pounds and he runs a 4.6 40 (when healthy).  He one has one speed on his throws and that is fast.  He will need to work on his touch.  But, he is very strong in play action and that’s a staple of the Steelers’ passing offense.  Dixon played in 38 games (26 starts) at Oregon and he completed 444 of 695 passes (63.9%) for 5,129 yards with 38 TD passes and 21 interceptions.  Look for the Steelers to groom Dixon into the long term backup for Ben Roethlisberger so that they are ready when Charlie Batch decides to hang up the cleats.

The Steelers should have addressed the offensive line earlier than this pick.  Tony Hills is a big guy at 6′5″, 305 pounds and he’s a good athlete as he’s a converted TE.  He needs to get stronger against bull rushers and in run blocking.  Hills does have speed when pulling or trapping which fits into the Steelers’ style.  He played in 42 games (24 starts) at Texas.  Hills will likely be a work in progress this season but he does have a good upside.

You would have thought that the Steelers learned their lesson last season with taking DEs and converted them to outside linebacker……well maybe not.  Davis stands at 6′1″, 240 pounds and he runs a 4.65 40 which is pretty quick for a man his size.  He played in 50 games at UCLA and he made 137 tackles, had 29 sacks, 42.5 tackles for a loss, forced 6 fumbles and recovered 3 fumbles.  It will be interesting to see if Davis will be able to cover RBs and TEs seeing how he never really had to do it in college.  It’s likely that the only production the Steelers will get out of Davis this season is on special teams.  This was a reach for the Steelers so high in the draft.