The Pittsburgh Steelers signed former Oakland Raiders cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke last week and head coach Mike Tomlin was asked to talk about the newest Steelers Sunday prior to the Sunday night opener against the Denver Broncos.
“We were interested in this young man when he came out in the draft in 2011, said Tomlin. ” Obviously, we ended up with Curtis Brown and Cortez Allen, but he was within that group and in that range from a grading standpoint. I was at his pro day. He’s got big-time upside, he’s an extremely fast guy. It was an opportunity for us to put a young cornerback in the mix and continue to work with him and develop his skill and see if maybe he can help us at some point.”
So now the mystery is solved as it appears that Van Dyke will indeed likely be around for at least a little while. While the coaching staff starts the task of developing the University of Miami product, he figures to dress every week going forward as a fifth cornerback, with his primary role being a gunner on special teams.
While Van Dyke did not record a specials team tackle in the Sunday night game, he was able to down a punt of Drew Butler in the game that Curtis Brown was able to prevent going into the endzone for touchback.
