Landry Jones.... A wasted 4th round pick

Looking back on the Steelers 2013 draft class, so far it looks pretty damn good. Despite the injury to  Le'Veon Ball, who was drafted out of Michigan State. Jarvis Jones, who is also currently banged up, has looked incredible at times and I could easily see him contending for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. 3rd round pick Markus Wheaton has looked even better and that's without playing with Ben Roethlisbeger throwing him the ball for the majority of the time. 4th  round pick Shamarko Thomas has looked really good as well, and with him learning to play safety behind Troy Polamalu and Dick LeBeau, I wouldn't doubt if he became a Pro Bowler in the future. 

The same can not be said for the other 4th round pick in this year's draft, quarterback Landry Jones. Jones, who's draft stock plummeted during his senior season at Oklahoma, has looked awful this preseason. Jones finished the preseason completing just 45% of his passes, throwing two touchdown passes and three interceptions, finishing the preseason with a qb rating of 53.1. Yikes. 

When the Steelers drafted Jones I said it would end up being a wasted pick. Jones is not the future of the Steelers and he will not be Ben Roethlisberger's predecessor. Jones will be a career backup at best. Even all of the NFL draft gurus agreed.  WalterFootball.com said that Jones wasn't the best player available and the Steelers really could have gotten a player that could have impacted the team this upcoming season. 

WalterFootball.com

Jones is a project player. He has glaring weaknesses that showed in Oklahoma. He damn near through an interception per game in college, despite playing in a conference that was known for everything besides defense. Jones struggled in the red-zone and has terrible pocket presence.

Jones does have a good arm and can make some impressive throws, but under pressure he's a disaster.

Here was a pre-draft scouting report from http://www.buffalorumblings.com/ on Jones' weaknesses.

Charlie Batch, who was released by the Steelers has said publicly that he thinks Jones is being groomed to be the Steelers future replacement for Ben Roethlisberger.

Batch, who has been with the Steelers for Ben Roethlisberger's entire career, felt there were other underlying motivations for the team's decision to draft a young quarterback.

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"Ultimately, I think this isn't about replacing me," Batch told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Big picture, maybe they're thinking, 'Can we develop Landry Jones to be the starter? Maybe two years from now, he could be our guy for the next 10 years.' We don't know. But with the contracts for quarterbacks these days, he'd certainly be a heck of a lot cheaper than Ben at age 34 or 35 or 36."

That's ridiculous to think the Steelers really drafted Jones to replace Big Ben. That's your air-apparent to the best quarterback in franchise history? A fourth round pick from Oklahoma? LOL 

Jones will be groomed to be a backup and that's about it. Surely the Steelers will take a qb in the first or second round whenever they are ready to replace Big Ben. Then again, Steelers fans have been waiting for ever to replace Ben. He's arguably the least appreciated superstar in Pittsburgh sports history. 

The Steelers traded a pick next year to get an extra fourth-round pick. I loved the pick of Shamarko Thomas, safety from Syarcuse. But the Steelers needed two safeties, they could have easily went and picked another safety with their extra-third round pick and groomed both of them behind Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark. Remember, the Steelers lost both of their backup safeties from last year (Will Allen, Ryan Mundy). 

The Steelers have terrible depth on the offensive line right now, at running back, at cornerback, on the defensive line, and at tight end.....There is a 99% chance that not only is Jones not going to help the team in anyway this year besides telling Roethlisberger "Good job", but that Jones won't even be a starting quarterback at any point in the Steelers' future. 

Wasted a pick and a chance to help the team by taking Jones in the fourth round. And for those that think fourth round picks can't help, please see Antonio Brown, Brett Keisel, and Larry Foote among others that have contributed over the years that were drafted in the fourth round or later. 

Jones sucks.