Asked and Answered: June 11

OTIS JOHNSON FROM GERMANTOWN, MD: In your opinion what was the best group of three wide receivers on the Steelers at one time? For me it was Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, and Markus Wheaton.
ANSWER: You must be young, because from 1974-77, the Steelers’ top three wide receivers included future Hall of Famers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, plus Frank Lewis, who entered the NFL as a No. 1 pick (8th overall) from Grambling in the 1971 NFL Draft.

RENATO GOMIDES FROM RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL: Does the team that gets on the clock during an NFL Draft already know who the previous team has selected before it’s announced to the public?
ANSWER: Yes. During an NFL Draft, the participating teams receive information in real time, as opposed to how the information is released to the public, most recently as it has been released on the television broadcasts being done by ESPN and NFL Network.

KEVIN SUNDE FROM MOREHEAD, KY: In past years of NFL Drafts, they used to have tables near the stage with each team having two or three representatives there with a telephone that had a direct line back to the team facility. When a team was on the clock, one of those people at the table would walk a card up to someone who would announce the pick. Is there any knowledge of any of those folks thinking they were smarter than everyone else and writing a different name on the card? And how do they do it now?
ANSWER: The people that teams chose to attend the NFL Draft were not people who were integral to the scouting/personnel/coaching departments of the franchise, because all of those folks were at the teams’ facilities inside the draft room where all of the actual decision-making took place. Because of that set-up, I am very confident that whatever decision came over the phone in terms of who was going to be the particular pick in a specific round never was changed by the individuals sitting at those tables. In fact, the Steelers had a specific person in the draft room whose…