For the second straight offseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers have made a ton of moves. They traded for wide receiver DK Metcalf in March, and then followed that up by trading George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys in May. In between those two moves, they signed veteran cornerbacks Darius Slay and Brandin Echols. The Steelers then circled back on the cornerback front and traded for Jalen Ramsey, as well a Jonnu Smith, with the signing of Aaron Rodgers ahead of minicamp being the cherry on top.
It’s the
several cornerback additions that received praise, though, from Dalton Wasserman of PFF, as he believes the acquisition of several cornerbacks was the best thing the Steelers did this offseason.
“Most of the Steelers’ defense played at a high level last season,” Wasserman writes. “The lone exception was a cornerback unit that ranked 30th in the NFL in PFF coverage grade. They did well to fix that, acquiring a couple of outstanding veterans. Former Eagle Darius Slay earned a 75.5 PFF coverage grade that ranked 16th in the NFL last season. Recent trade acquisition Jalen Ramsey recorded the 11th-best PFF overall grade among qualified cornerbacks in his final season in Miami. If both of these moves pan out, the Steelers could have the best defense in the NFL this season.”
Should Ramsey and Slay end up being major factors in the success of the Steelers’ defense, those additions will be looked back on in an even better light. Not to mention Echols, who could compete for snaps both on the boundary and at nickel. The depth the Steelers have is very real heading into training camp, and is easily the most depth they’ve had in the secondary since the 2000s.
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