The Pittsburgh Steelers promoted cornerback Josh Victorian to the 53 man roster from the practice squad on Saturday in order to have a little extra depth at the cornerback position being as Ike Taylor will be out with his fractured ankle suffered last week in the win over the Baltimore Ravens.
The primary focus for Victorian on Sunday against the San Diego Chargers will be special teams as he is expected to fill in on those units for Cortez Allen, who will be making his first career start with Taylor out. In his pregame interview with Bill Hillgrove, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin hinted that Victorian might get a few snaps on defense in the game in addition.
“The cornerback position, with Ike Taylor down, we needed to fortify the depth in that area, so we promoted Josh Victorian from our practice squad and you’ll see him today in a helmet playing some special teams and maybe even some defense,” Tomlin said, when asked to explain the reason why Victorian was promoted on Saturday.
Tomlin could just be blowing some smoke here or perhaps there is an outside chance that we could see a few dime looks against the Chargers. When the Steelers use their nickel sub-package Allen slides inside and Curtis Brown comes into the game to play outside. When Taylor was healthy and the Steelers used their dime, Brown was the 4th defensive back inserted into the lineup.
There is a good chance that DeMarcus Van Dyke will be active on Sunday as well to help on special teams. Van Dyke, however, is regarded as an outside boundary corner mostly and not one that works well in the slot. Victorian played some in the slot for the Steelers during the preseason and showed upside. He recorded one interception in his limited playing time and should have had two more in addition.
Will we see any dime at all on Sunday against Chargers? I for one would be surprised if we did, but if it does happen, it very well could be a Victorian dime.
