FanHouse Robert Ayers

DENVER -- Maybe it took two quarters of getting acclimated to the Denver altitude, or perhaps the rust of a bye week left the Pittsburgh Steelers a bit sluggish out of the gate Monday night. But when the Steelers' defense and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hit the field re-energized in the second half of what became a lopsided AFC battle against the Broncos, they hardly let the home team touch the football.

Roethlisberger threw three second-half touchdowns, the Steelers defense forced two of Kyle Orton's three interceptions, and Pittsburgh played its most complete 30 minutes of football this season, ultimately rolling to a 28-10 victory over the Broncos at a stunned Invesco Field.

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Offensive tackle Andre Smith became the 31st 2009 first-round draft pick to sign, coming to terms with Cincinnati. Find all the signed picks' contract details below:

Josh McDaniels' honeymoon as the Broncos new head coach was a short one. As soon as Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler commenced with the whinging, fans, for the most part, blamed the 32-year-old McDaniels. He has no prior head coaching experience, and obviously inherited his people-person skills from mentor Bill Belichick.

The confluence of all this eventually led to the Broncos trading Cutler to the Bears for two first-round picks and Kyle Orton. And it was hard to make the case that Denver was better without Cutler, despite the extra draft picks and the steady-but-hardly-spectacular Orton.

It's been more than four months since Pat Bowlen fired close friend Mike Shanahan. The subsequent search to replace the man who gave Denver 14 years and two Super Bowls was, at times, bumpy. It got bumpier after Bowlen settled on 32-year-old Josh McDaniels.

A fresh-faced Bill Belichick protégé, McDaniels had coordinated up the most explosive offense in NFL history: the 2007 New England Patriots. As often happens when coaches relocate, McDaniels wanted to bring in his "his" players to run "his" system. Hours into free agency, the Broncos inked former Pats wideout Jabar Gaffney. And then, after Denver tried to acquire Matt Cassel, incumbent Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler demanded a trade, things got messy, and, ultimately, the Broncos ended up with a couple first-round picks, Kyle Orton and a lot of questions.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

"You go into this thing understanding that you're not going to fix everything that you may want to fix."

That's Broncos coach Josh McDaniels speaking, likely about the team's failure to improve their awful run defense. He's speaking the truth. There were too many issues facing Denver for them to solve them all over the course of seven rounds.

McDaniels' wisdom does nothing to explain why the team chose to trade away its 2010 first-round pick so they could draft cornerback Alphonso Smith in the second round, however. That seems more like creating a problem where none existed, something that could easily come back to haunt the Broncos in a year's time.

Just after the first round ended, FanHouse's Will Brinson worked up a list of the five biggest mistakes of the first 32 picks. Number two with a bullet was the Broncos' decision to choose Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno with the 12th overall pick. Moreno is talented, but he went too early and he failed to address the biggest needs on the Bronco team.

So it was a rough start for Brian Xanders and Josh McDaniels, the new G.M. and coach of the Broncos. Unfortunately, the Broncos were just getting warmed up. The first day of the first McDaniels/Xanders draft was full of questionable moves, and could wind up making 2010's draft another day to forget.

NEW YORK -- The Broncos just made a deal with Seattle to get Wake Forest defensive back Alphonso Smith with the 37th overall pick. In exchange for the pick, Denver gave Seattle its first-round pick in next year's draft.

The Broncos were one of the biggest pre-draft stories because of the personality conflict that led new coach Josh McDaniels to trade Jay Cutler to the Bears. With the two first-round picks they were left with as a result of that deal, the Broncos picked running back Knowshon Moreno and defensive end Robert Ayers, and they just made a move to get Smith. So they addressed three needs in the first 37 picks (and got Kyle Orton) as a result of moves they've made in the past month.

Not a bad haul, but it strikes me that unless Orton's the answer, they're still going to need a quarterback. And they just traded a first-round pick from next year's quarterback-rich draft?

Robert Ayers, DE Selected: College: Tennessee Age: 23 Height: 6-foot-3 Weight: 272 lbs. 2008 Stats: 49 tackles (34 solo), 15.5 tackles for loss, 3 sacks

Scouting Report: Doesn't appear to do anything particularly well, but finally posted numbers in 2008. Decent strength and speed, but nothing off the charts. Makes solid moves on the line, which is why he managed to come up with so many plays in the backfield.

2009 Outlook: If he plays like he did late in his Tennessee career, he could become a very effective defensive lineman. Otherwise, he's going to struggle with the speed and strength of the NFL game and be more of a role player.

HIGHLIGHT REEL:

The Eagles are a better team this morning. They've replaced aging Tra Thomas with one of the best, young left tackles in the game, Jason Peters. It cost them a handful of draft picks (including the 28th overall selection next week), but the club still has the 21st pick, and can use it to assuage Donovan McNabb's concerns by taking an impact offensive player. Possible candidates: running back Knowshon Moreno, tight end Brandon Pettigrew, or any of the remaining wideouts on the board.

Eagles head coach Andy Reid described Peters as "the best left tackle in football," which might be overstating it a bit, particularly after a rocky 2008 campaign. Still, Peters is in the top five, and he improves a team that, despite a tumultuous regular season, was a lousy quarter of football away from the Super Bowl.

Well, not really, but it felt that way during a two-hour conference call that NFL.com draft guru Mike Mayock held with members of the media this afternoon. I'm pretty sure every NFL writer and every college writer in the country was on the call, and that everyone got to ask a question. Mayock is, I am 100 percent certain, either a computer or the 21st-century version of the robot 2XL (without, of course, the 8-track tapes). Only one time in the entire two hours did he fail to answer a question, and that was because somebody asked about a kicker, and he admitted he didn't really look at kickers in the draft.