After being selected in the second-round of the 2015 NFL Draft, cornerback Senquez Golson has yet to play in a single game for the Pittsburgh Steelers and that includes the preseason. Golson, who has since suffered shoulder and foot injuries in his first two seasons in Pittsburgh, will now attempt to prove in 2017 that he can stay healthy and start contributing.
During his Tuesday end-of-the-season press conference, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked if he expects Golson to be back healthy in 2017 and his response wasn’t very surprising all things considered.
“I expect to. We’ll see if that transpires,” Tomlin said.
Golson, who originally thought he might be able to start playing midway through the 2016 regular season after suffering a Lisfranc injury during the first few practices of the team’s training camp in Latrobe, ultimately landed on the Reserve/Injured list this past October and was thus out for the remainder of the year.
During his rookie season, the Mississippi product, who led the SEC in interceptions during his final year in college, didn’t even make it to training camp as a shoulder injury that he had suffered during the team’s OTA practices ultimately required surgery.
With his first two seasons completely wiped out by injuries, the Steelers can’t count on Golson being a contributor in 2017 and because of that the cornerback position might have to be addressed again at some point during the 2017 NFL Draft.
Should, however, Golson stay healthy, he should be able to compete in training camp for the starting nickel cornerback job which currently belongs to veteran William Gay. At the very least, Golson will hopefully make the Steelers final 53-man roster in 2017 as a core special teams player in addition to serving as a depth at the cornerback position.
Like Tomlin said on Tuesday, we’ll have to wait and see what transpires.
