Let the guessing game begin.

The NFL Draft is being held this weekend and there's no sense in even trying to predict who the Steelers will select with the 32nd and final pick of the first round.

It's impossible to determine if they'll even end up making that pick at all.

Kevin Colbert, the team's director of Football Operations, has traded up or down in the first round of the draft three times in his nine years with the organization.

Feel good if he does so this weekend. The first three times worked out pretty well.

Colbert traded down in 2001 and still got the man he wanted, a nose tackle named Casey Hampton. He became a Pro Bowl player and a fixture on defense.

Colbert traded up in 2003 to get safety Troy Polamalu. He became a Pro Bowl player, another fixture on defense and arguably the best at his position in the NFL.

Colbert traded up again in 2006 to get wide receiver Santonio Holmes. And unless you just plain don't follow football, you know what he did in the Super Bowl this year.

So just what do the Steelers have in mind with that 32nd pick?

They don't know. How can they? Thirty-one teams are picking in front of them.

All Colbert is saying is that he has 32 players on his draft board for the first round. That means he'll get one of them.

He also is saying the Steelers won't pick a quarterback or running back in the first round.

The Steelers have identified needs at defensive line, offensive line, cornerback and wide receiver.

Take the best player available? Sounds that way to me.

Just because you pick 32nd doesn't mean you can't get an impact player. Drew Brees, Reggie Wayne, Marvel Smith, Alge Crumpler, Ben Watson and Anthony Gonzalez all were picked 30th or lower over the past few years.

All you want to do in the first round is avoid the bust. When the Steelers drafted a few first-round busts in the late 1970s and early '80s, the team's performance dropped a notch or two.

Draft well, enjoy the payoff later. This franchise has proven that theory on numerous occasions.

Colbert's theory is that teams can find eventual starters in the first three rounds, contributors in the fourth and fifth rounds, practice squad players in the sixth and seventh rounds.

If it plays out that way, you've had a pretty good draft.

The biggest impact on the 2009 Steelers probably won't come from this draft. It will come from last year's.

Running back Rashard Mendenhall is coming back from his broken shoulder and receiver Limas Sweed is coming back from his dropped passes.

The Steelers' top two draft picks from last spring should make their presence felt this fall.

Remember the name Dennis Dixon, too. Charlie Batch won't last forever.

This is a gradual process, after all.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.