If you’ve followed along with our daily Pittsburgh Steelers training camp reports so far, you are probable up to speed already as to the pecking order of most positions through the team’s first four practices and specifically when it comes to the slot cornerback position. With that said, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert also provided a recent depth chart preview of that position during a Monday interview on 105.9 The X.
“William Gay’s there for the slot, but we also have a few young guys if we can find out what they’re capable of,” Colbert told Mark Madden. “We’ll see, but right now a couple of them are slowed by injury and that’s Cam Sutton and Senquez [Golson] and that will push us behind a little bit. But a guy like Coty Sensabaugh, who we brought over as an unrestricted free agent, will also be able to provide some competition.”
Once again, none of what Colbert said about the slot combatants should come as a surprise to our loyal readers, but with that said, it’s always great to hear it come from the proverbial horse’s mouth just the same. Should we read much into Colbert naming rookie Cameron Sutton ahead of Senquez Golson? Probably not, but it’s worth pointing out nonetheless. Sutton, as all of you know by now, is currently dealing with a lower body injury of some sort while Golson is down right now with a hamstring injury that’s expected to keep him sidelined a little while.
Colbert obviously didn’t mention first-year player and former undrafted free agent Mike Hilton and that’s not overly surprising even though he’s been seeing increased practice time in the slot while both Sutton and Golson are sidelined.
While were on the subject of slot defenders, above is an interesting stat for William Gay that Pro Football Focus posted on Twitter Tuesday.
There was a lot of speculation earlier in the offseason that Gay’s roster spot could be in jeopardy this year, but with four practices now completed in Latrobe, I’m pretty sure his job in 2017 is very safe.
To end this post, here’s what Colbert had to say to Madden when asked if the Steelers cornerbacks can play more man-coverage in 2017 if that’s indeed in the cards for the upcoming season.
“We want to be able to do the whole bag of secondary play that we can,” Colbert predictably said. “We want to be able to play zone coverages, we want to play pure man, we want to play combinations and quite honestly, how that front seven and how those outside linebackers develop, that will help that back-end as well, because it all works in concert.”
