Last time Steelers didn't have 1st round pick, they had dud of a draft

Since they traded for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in September, the Pittsburgh Steelers knew they were bucking history by entering the 2020 NFL Draft without a first-round draft pick.

It has been 53 years, to be exact, since the Steelers didn’t have a first-rounder. And the organization can only hope that the picks they make Friday and Saturday fare better than the players who were chosen in that 1967 draft.

The Steelers enter the second round with a running back ranking high on the wish list. That also was the case in ’67 when general manager Fran Fogarty and coach Bill Austin plucked halfback Don Shy from San Diego State as their second-rounder.

Shy led the Steelers with 341 yards rushing that year, and he became a footnote in 2019 when James Conner had a team-high 464 yards rushing. That was the lowest total by a Steelers leading rusher since Shy’s rookie season.

Shy lasted one more season with the Steelers — he rushed for 106 yards in 1968 — before spending one year with the New Orleans Saints, four with the Chicago Bears and one with the St. Louis Cardinals. His NFL career consisted of 1,577 career rushing yards and a 3.5 average per carry. His career best was 420 yards with the Bears in 1971. He never topped the four touchdowns he scored with the Steelers in that rookie season.

The third-round pick that year — tackle Rocky Freitas of Oregon State — enjoyed an 11-year NFL career and made the Pro Bowl once. He just never achieved any of those accomplishments with the Steelers.

Freitas never played a down in the regular season with the Steelers. Because he was on a college all-star team that played the Green Bay Packers in an exhibition game, Freitas was a late arrival to training camp.

He apparently was given three sets of playbooks to learn, and it overwhelmed the young tackle, who was shipped to Detroit at the end of training camp. Freitas spent 10 seasons with the Lions, making the Pro Bowl in 1972, and he finished his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1978.

Freitas wasn’t alone in failing to see the field for the Steelers. According to profootballreference.com, of the 14 draft picks they made that year, just five played for the organization. Only two made it to the Chuck Noll era in 1969.

Tackle Mike Haggerty from Miami (sixth round) played two years for Noll, and linebacker Ralph May of USC (fourth round) enjoyed just one. Haggerty, though, spent six seasons in the league, and May made it to nine.

Defensive back John Foruria of Idaho (eighth round) started four games over two years with the Steelers and never played again in the NFL. Tight end Chet Anderson of Minnesota (14th round) had eight catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns in 1967, his lone NFL season.

All of those players were footnotes when the Steelers turned the corner and became an annual playoff contender in 1972.