The Pittsburgh Steelers introduced new cornerback Arti Burns, their 2016 first-round draft pick, to the media Friday afternoon and the Miami product opened up his press conference my revealing one of his immediate goals.
“It’s a great feeling to be a part of this organization,” said Burns, who will turn 21 years of age on Sunday. “There’s no better feeling, no words I can put in place to explain my emotions that I got right now, but all i can really say is I’m aiming for that seventh trophy.”
Burns, who enters the NFL as a very raw player who started just 23 games while at Miami, also ran hurdles while in college and while he did have success in that sport, it did cause him to miss valuable offseason time with the football team over the course of the last two years. He admitted that missed time likely resulted in his slow development.
“It’s a big deal missing two offseasons in college,” said Burns, who recorded 6 interceptions last season. “I don’t want to say it backtracked me, but it kind of delayed me from growing and to be able to focus all of my attention on football, I feel like my ceiling is the limit. So i feel great about it and I’m just ready to go.”
While Burns is proud of the season that he had last year at Miami, he knows several elements of his game need to improve now that he’s in the NFL.
“Just sharpen up my technique and tackling, most definitely,” said Burns. “Just polish up everything, just polish up my whole game and just be the athlete and a team player that this organization needs me to be.”
