Judging by comments made Tuesday by Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert, the team’s 2016 defensive secondary is likely to include several players who were on the 2015 roster if they are able to re-sign several who are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents in a matter of weeks.
In his annual sit-down interview with the local media prior to leaving for the scouting combine in Indianapolis, Colbert said the organization “will definitely entertain” re-signing cornerbacks William Gay and Antwon Blake in addition to veteran safety Will Allen.
“We haven’t written off any of those guys,” said Colbert, according to Mike Prisuta.
Colbert’s comments about those three players aren’t overly surprising being as it shouldn’t take much to get all three back under contract by the start of the new league year. Even if Blake and Allen are re-signed, they figure to be had for the NFL minimums and thus will be very expendable if unable to win roster spots during training camp.
Additionally, Colbert let it be known Tuesday that the door hasn’t been shut on a possible return of free agent cornerback Brandon Boykin, who the team acquired last year during training camp via a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles. However, re-signing Boykin figures to be a tough proposition as opposed to the others being as he is very likely to test free agency.
“He helped us down the stretch,” said Colbert of Boykin, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He’ll definitely be an option (to re-sign) for us.”
As far as cornerback Cortez Allen goes, Colbert gave every indication Tuesday that he will be back in training camp this year competing for a starting job and that the team hasn’t given up on him just yet even though he’s had problems staying healthy the last two seasons.
Even though several members of the Steelers 2015 secondary are likely to return this offseason, Colbert indicated Thursday that the 2016 draft class is a deep one when it comes to the cornerback and safety positions.
“The secondary is deeper than it has been, for sure,” Colbert said.
In summation, this is par for the course when it comes to the Steelers approach to the offseason as they generally try to re-sign several of their own free agents while keeping an open mind to improving at all positions via the draft and lower-level outside free agent signings.
