Post Draft Analysis: Mike Wallace

After Mike "Burnell" Wallace's NFL combine workouts, the entire football world knew exactly what we Rebels have known for years: Wallace is faster 'n' Hell. Possessing good acceleration and an elite top-speed, he was able to boost his draft stock tremendously by being the 2nd fastest wideout at the combine, being just a hair "slower" than the Raider's latest in a long line of absolutely fucking stupid decisions first-round selectoin, Darius Hayward-Bay.

Come draft time, Wallace had transformed himself from a player hardly known outside of Oxford, MS into one of the 3rd round selections of the defending Super Bowl Champions. That's not so shabby for a lightly recruited athlete out of high school who spent three of his four collegiate years playing for the SEC's then-worst team.

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As a receiver with his particular skillset, you've got to love the prospects Mike Wallace has in the Steel City. Their wide receiver corps is versatile enough that Wallace shouldn't be asked to do too much outside of his natural skillset--namely, being batshit-crazy fast. Ben Roethlisberger has a very strong arm and should be able to utilize Mike's ability to stretch the field when need be. Furthermore, the talk of the Pittsburgh Steeler legion is that their coaches intend to give Wallace a shot at kick returning duties. While they're certainly not getting an elite returner in Wallace-a guy with great speed but only moderate lateral movement and shiftiness-they're getting a guy who can establish good field position on nearly every return, something which proved to be a valuable asset to our Rebel offense this season.

Another aspect of Wallace's brand new pro career is that the Steeler Fans seem to really like him a lot. I've been reading many of the post-draft pieces over at SBNation's Steeler site (Behind the Steel Curtain) and everyone seems pretty excited about his potential impact. We'll have more on this in an upcoming post where we examine the thoughts and feelings of the fans of the various NFL franchises which our newly-departed Rebels will be playing for.