When the Steelers released veteran cornerback Anthony Averett last week it left veterans Donte Jackson and Cameron Sutton as the only corners on the roster with more than three seasons of NFL experience on their roster.
And Sutton, signed this offseason, is suspended for the first eight games of the 2024 season for violation of the league's personal conduct policy.
The Steelers are hoping that, to steal a line from The Who, "The Kids are Alright."
As the Steelers enter their third, and final, preseason game Saturday at Detroit, they have 11 cornerbacks still on their roster. Eight have two or fewer years of NFL experience, while the one outlier besides Jackson and Sutton, slot corner Thomas Graham Jr., is a third-year player, but has just 11 games of NFL experience under his belt.
"Hey, it's my job to coach them," said Steelers defensive backs coach Grady Brown. "So we've got to do what we've got to do."
That doesn't mean having moldable minds isn't a good thing.
"It's always exciting," Brown said. "You know, the thing with youth is energy, it's excitement, it's athleticism. It's a lot of things that come with you. There are some advantages that come along with experience, right? Yeah, but there are some advantages to come along that come along with youth. It's a young man's game. So hopefully we can just combine my experience as a coach with their youth, and then we'll get what we need on Sundays."
While he's not necessarily thought of as a young guy after the way he played last season, Joey Porter Jr. is heading into just his second NFL season. So are Corey Trice Jr. and Darius Rush, though both are finishing off their first preseasons with the Steelers.
Trice, a seventh-round pick last season, suffered a torn ACL early in training camp last season, while the Steelers acquired Rush, a fifth-round pick of the Colts, midway through the season, signing him off Kansas City's practice squad after Indianapolis released him at the end of training camp, hoping to slide him onto their own practice squad.
Porter is obviously a starter, but Trice and Rush are listed as the top backups to him and Jackson. Rookie Beanie Bishop is listed as the team's top nickel corner, while fellow rookie Ryan Watts, a sixth-round draft pick, is listed as third-string strong safety, but also has played corner in training camp and in the preseason.
"They look like they have the physical tools to get it, and they can bring something to the table," said Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin. "So I always try to look at some guys – it may be a veteran guy that's ahead of them now – but I'm thinking down the line, in three, six, nine weeks – where is this guy going to be? And if we feel that he's going to develop that much."
Given the team's moves throughout this preseason, the coaching staff must feel pretty confident where those young players are at.
But Brown and Austin have been cognizant of the fact they have so many young guys back there. They haven't tried to overload the group by asking them to do too many different things.
Bishop, for example, hasn't been asked to bump outside at all, focusing on playing in the slot. Trice and Rush, both of whom are taller cornerbacks, have stayed largely on the outside. Only Watts has moved around, but he played both corner and safety in college, so he had already shown some of that flexibility.
Once cutdowns happen, though, that might change. Having guys who can play inside or out would give the coaching staff better roster flexibility on game days.
At a long and lean, 6-foot-3, Trice doesn't necessarily profile as a slot cornerback, where lateral movement is so important. At 5-foot-9, Bishop has the speed to play on the outside, but perhaps not the size to match up against bigger, more physical wide receivers on the boundary.
But Watts and Rush, both 6-foot-2, but more thickly built, might be capable of playing more inside if needed.
It's something at which the coaching staff will look – if they make the 53-man roster.
"At some point," Austin said of moving the young guys out of those spots. "You can't overload young guys like that. If you do that, then sometimes it's one more time where you get in that room because they're swimming in terms of what their assignments are, so they don't really play fast, and you don't see what you want. So, I think right now, we're going to keep them where they are."
• Mike Tomlin's decision to play his regulars in Saturday's preseason finale is an outlier in today's NFL.
Not only are some teams not playing their regulars in their preseason finale, many aren't playing them in the preseason at all.
The results have not been pretty.
Per Warren Sharp, preseason scoring is at its lowest mark in the past seven seasons, with teams averaging just 15.6 points per game.
Tomlin's decision to play his guys against the Lions makes a lot of sense, though. This is an entirely new offense with three all-new quarterbacks.
That group needs as much exposure to preseason games as possible to be ready to face the Falcons on Sept. 8.
The Falcons, meanwhile, haven't played new quarterback Kirk Cousins a single down in the preseason. And backup Michael Penix, the team's first-round draft pick, played only in the first preseason game.
We'll get a good look on Sept. 8 at which approach was the more prudent one to make.
• Russell Wilson is a pro. He understands what it means to be a team's starting quarterback.
For example, when asked about the offensive line, Wilson brought up Broderick Jones' struggles in last week's against the Bills. But Wilson didn't throw Jones under the bus. In fact, quite the opposite. Wilson praised the second-year offensive tackle.
"We all know how great Broderick Jones is," Wilson said. "Everybody was talking about how Broderick is a great football player. He is one of the reasons I came here, because of how talented he is."
Again, Wilson singled out Jones, who had a rough game against the Bills, without specifically being asked about him.
That veteran leadership is just one of the many reasons the Steelers wanted to acquire Wilson.
• For the third consecutive season, the Steelers have made Bill Barnwell's list on ESPN of teams who are set to have a regression in their wins.
Thing is, Barnwell's been wrong about that with his first two predictions of a regression for the Steelers. Hey, if you keep saying something, sooner or later it's bound to come true.
This is not a knock on Barnwell, who does good work in analytics for ESPN. His reasoning for expecting a regression isn't bad. A lot of it makes sense, given his analytical nature.
But Mike Tomlin's teams in recent seasons have defied odds. And they've done so despite playing four different quarterbacks. They've done so despite having stretches where T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, Minkah Fitzpatrick and others haven't been available for long stretches.
They've found ways to continue to find victories by winning in the margins.
To his credit, Barnwell does admit that. He concedes he could very well be wrong about the Steelers again.
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast
They've won 19 games the previous two seasons despite getting just 25 touchdown passes in 34 games from their quarterbacks. Russell Wilson had 26 touchdown passes in 15 games last season in Denver.
In addition to quarterback, they've upgraded at inside linebacker, cornerback, strong safety and added to their offensive line, just to name a few places where this team looks better.
On paper, this team looks improved over the one that finished with 10 wins and in the playoffs in 2023.
Certainly, the schedule is more difficult. But that's nothing new. Playing in the AFC North, the Steelers always face a tough block of games, though Barnwell's list of teams primed for a regression also includes the Ravens and Browns. And the NFL schedule maker didn't do them any favors this season by loading all of those games in the second half of the season – along with others against Kansas City and Philadelphia.
Again, Barnwell very well may be right about the Steelers in 2024. But recent history shows there is also a strong chance he could be wrong - again.
• NFL ownership will hold a special meeting next week to discuss some pending issues surrounding the league.
Per Pro Football Talk, one of the things on the agenda is taking a look at the new dynamic kickoff rules. At that point, owners will have the full preseason statistics from which to draw some conclusions regarding the new rules.
Through the first two weeks of the preseason, the average starting position for kickoffs has been around the 28. That could lead some teams to simply decide once the season begins to kick the ball out of the end zone all of the time, placing it at the 30-yard line. That would defeat the intent of the rule.
But that also would become increasingly difficult in some locations as the year wears on and weather becomes a factor in many cities.
Some have advocated for placing the ball at the 35-yard line instead of the 30 for kicks that go through the end zone. There doesn't seem to be widespread support of that at this point.
We could, however, see some tweaks to the new rule before the season begins.
