The change in personnel under general manager Omar Khan brings hope for Pittsburgh Steelers fans that a change in the evaluation of college cornerbacks will follow suit.
Along with assistant general manager Andy Weidl, Khan has new evaluators in director of pro scouting Sheldon White and director of player scouting Mark Sadowski. He also promoted Dan Colbert and Dave Petett, among other moves aimed at bolstering the front office.
The new regime will be put to the immediate test to see whether it can avoid past missteps made by the Steelers in identifying cornerback prospects.
The most glaring mistake, of course, was the selection of Artie Burns in the first round of the 2016 draft. He’s not alone, though. The Steelers also drafted players who couldn’t get on the field because of injuries (Senquez Golson) or talent (Doran Grant, Justin Layne). The only cornerback drafted in the past decade who became a starter was Cameron Sutton, and he didn’t crack the secondary full time until his fourth season.
Former Tampa Bay general manager Mark Dominik, an NFL analyst for Sirius/XM, recently called the position the Steelers’ “Achilles heel,” but he wouldn’t be surprised to see them “maybe trying one more bite of that apple.”
Coincidentally, it is partially because of Sutton exiting in free agency that the Steelers are so intent on adding a cornerback early in this year’s draft. His replacement, Patrick Peterson, turns 33 in July, and the Steelers would like to add a playmaker to a group that includes No. 2 corner Levi Wallace and veterans Ahkello Witherspoon and James Pierre.
Fortunately for the Steelers, their intent on upgrading the position comes at an opportune time considering the number of prospects available in the 2023 class.
Pro Football Focus lists nine cornerbacks among its top 50 overall prospects, and NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah totals seven. Colleague Lance Zierlein said this group could surpass the 2022 class in which 12 corners were drafted in the first three rounds.
“There might not be a (NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year) Sauce Gardner in this year’s class, but there appears to be a higher number of players who will be starters in the NFL,” Zierlein wrote as evidence that cornerback is the strongest of the 11 position groups he recently graded. “In fact, there will be big, long explosive perimeter cornerbacks available in each of the first four rounds.”
Analysts are divided on whether Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez or Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon is the premier prospect in the cornerback class. They agree, though, that Gonzalez and Witherspoon will be the first two corners off the board, each possibly going in the top 10.
“It’s pretty much a coin flip,” Jeremiah said. “With Witherspoon, you get a little bit more playmaking, a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more urgent, whereas with Gonzalez you obviously get the size and the speed that is pretty elite, and he’s a real fluid, smooth athlete.”
At the NFL Combine, Witherspoon checked in at 5-foot-11 ½ and 181 pounds. His production score at the combine rated third among all corners. Gonzalez is 6-1, 197 pounds and totaled the second-best production score. He also ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds.
“Witherspoon is the first cornerback taken because he’s the most complete,” ESPN analyst Todd McShay said. “He’s a ballhawk, he’s really good in coverage. He’s just so physical. The NFL is so much about the screen game and teams being spread out, and you have to be able to tackle at the corner position.
“Where that is Witherspoon’s strength, that is where Gonzalez has to improve upon. He’s not a great tackler. He’s not great in run support.”
The third-rated cornerback is the one most familiar to Steelers fans: North Allegheny grad and Penn State redshirt junior Joey Porter Jr. He is 6-2 ½, 193 pounds and ran the 40 in 4.46 seconds. He recorded the ninth-best production score at the combine.
“I think he’s really good at playing up at the line of scrimmage due to his length,” Dominik said. “When you get up there next to him and stand by him, you’re kind of blown away by just the size of the man. Yet, the athleticism is there. When you watch his tape, I feel like he hasn’t even been the player he is going to become. I think he’s going to get better as he gets in the NFL.”
McShay is intrigued by Porter’s 34-inch arms.
“When you have the length of a left tackle out at cornerback,” he said, “It allows you to reroute receivers, get physical and really stunt them as a receiver. And he has that top-end speed.”
Another potential target for the Steelers at No. 17 is Maryland’s Deonte Banks, who is 6-foot, 197 pounds and has 4.35 speed with a 42-inch vertical jump. Of those four prospects, Witherspoon was the only one who didn’t take a top-30 visit with the Steelers.
The Steelers hosted six corners overall, including a pair of possibilities with the No. 32 pick: Kansas State’s Julius Brents and Miami’s Tyrique Stevenson.
“It is a deep position,” Khan said.
Joe Rutter is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe by email at jrutter@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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April 26, 2023 at 04:31AM
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NFL Draft primer: New Steelers regime charged with finding right fit from deep cornerback class - TribLIVE
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