Editor’s note: This NFL Draft will be the 20th under the eye of Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert. In conjunction with the Trib’s daily positional previews leading up to the April 25 start of the draft, we’ll look back at Colbert’s three best — and three worst — picks at each position.

The Steelers often get credit for their drafting of wide receivers in recent years, and rightfully so. But has their drafting of offensive tackles over the past two decades have been even better?

In one respect, perhaps. Even the three worst Colbert picks have combined to play 21 NFL seasons. Difficult to label any player who makes it through five pro seasons as a true “bust.”

No, the Steelers since 2000 don’t have a Hall of Fame tackle on their resume at wide receiver like they do in sixth-round pick Antonio Brown. But they mostly have avoided major whiffs, and they more often than not have come away with a reliable longtime starter when they have taken a tackle in the early rounds.

A deeper look:

Three best

1. Kelvin Beachum

2012, seventh round, 248th overall

What went wrong for the Steelers at tackle early on in this draft (more on that later) was more than atoned for with their final of nine picks. Beachum’s short stature (6-foot-3) made many assume he would be a guard if he made it in the pros at all. Instead, he quickly became the Steelers’ starting left tackle. He has 86 NFL starts in seven seasons.

2. Max Starks

2004, third round, 75th overall

Starks lasted nine seasons and was a starter for eight, including twice on Super Bowl championship teams. The Steelers viewed him as valuable enough they signed him to a contract five times, including a rare use of the transition tag to keep him on their most recent Super Bowl title team in 2008. Starks started 106 games for the Steelers (including playoffs).

3. Marcus Gilbert

2011, second round, 63rd overall

This was a toss-up between Gilbert and Marvel Smith, another second-round pick who was a longtime starter at right tackle for some good Steelers teams. Gilbert gets the nod based on value: He was taken 25 slots lower than Smith was drafted in 2000.

Three worst

1. Mike Adams

2012, second round, 56th overall

It’s almost as if the Beachum and Adams picks were flipped. Adams famously called Colbert personally to lobby for the Steelers to take him after he tested positive for marijuana at the combine and had been suspended by the NCAA for five games at Ohio State. He had the look of an NFL tackle, but it never worked out and he was out of the league within five years.

2. Tony Hills

2008, fourth round, 130th overall

Hills wasn’t an awful pick. Fourth-rounders who make it nine NFL seasons aren’t worthy of scorn. But he only had one start, none with the Steelers, and appeared in four games for them.

3. Chris Scott

2010, fifth round, 151st overall

Again, as a fifth-round pick it would be unfair to expect too much from Scott, who was college teammates with longtime Steelers starting lineman Ramon Foster. But Scott was gone from the organization after two uneventful years and two regular-season games played.

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