One positional unit that overwent a serious offseason makeover for the Pittsburgh Steelers was cornerback. As part of the plan to get the defense back to dominance, big changes had to be made. Let’s take a look at the cornerbacks after the draft and free agency.
Starters
As of right now, the starting outside cornerbacks are Levi Wallace and Patrick Peterson. While we expect this to change at some point with Wallace being demoted, he’s the senior returning cornerback at this point.
backups
The primary backups on the outside at this point are rookie Joey Porter Jr. and James Pierre. Porter is the future at cornerback for the Steelers and we expect him and Wallace to swap places by the start of the season.
Slot cornerback
After a surprising release of Arthur Maulet, the slot cornerback duties fall on Chandon Sullivan who the team signed as a free agent during the draft. This could be a spot where Wallace lands to stay in the mix if Porter wins the starting job on the outside.
Backups
Pittsburgh has a long list of guys left on the roster but it isn’t clear how the rest of this group will shake out. Here is the list of guys left on the roster.
Cory Trice Jr.
Chris Wilcox
Duke Dawson
Tre Norwood
Luc Barcoo
Madre Harper
If he can learn the playbook, Trice is the guy to watch here. The Steelers got a bargain with him in the seventh round and he along with Tre Norwood are the best guys on the list to contribute in a variety of ways in the secondary.
