With the 241st pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Purdue CB Cory Trice.
A long and physical cornerback, Trice converted from safety midway through his Boilermakers career. There appear to be medical concerns that caused him to fall, including a 2021 torn ACL that ended his season early. He wore a brace on his injured knee until October 2022.
“This guy could be a steal,” NFL analyst Louis Riddick said after the Steelers picked Trice on ESPN’s live broadcast of the draft.
For his career, Trice recorded 106 tackles and picked off five passes while breaking up 15 more.
The Steelers announced Trice as a corner though he has relatively limited experience there. He stopped playing CB in 8th grade and moved to safety until midway through his Boilermakers career when he moved back to corner. Steelers DBs Coach Grady Brown said the team will begin him at corner.
Here is our complete scouting report on Trice below. And here is the good/bad from our section.
THE GOOD
— Has long frame with good length
— Uses length well to press, jam, and disrupt at the line of scrimmage, comfortable aligning inside leverage and forcing outside release
— Physical downhill player with quick click/close out of his pedal, numbers shown up in his broad and vert
— Can deliver impactful hits when driving downhill, good pop and a reliable wrap-up tackler though he doesn’t deliver devastating blows
— Experience in press and off, mix of zone and man
— Aggressive with the ball in the air, wants to attack it
— Can play catch point and use length to bat passes away
— Hasn’t played a ton of football and best football may be ahead of him
— Regarded as a hard-worker with maturity and discipline
THE BAD
— Lean frame, high-cut and could add some weight and muscle
— Stiffer when asked to flip hips and cover in-breaking routes, though perhaps impacted by knee brace/injury
— Eyes can get glued to QB in zone coverage and allow routes behind him
— Needs to get hands on at the line or looks more uncomfortable and will get beat
— Plays a tick slower than his 4.47 time
— Gets grabby at top of routes and feels compelled to get and keep hands on receivers at all times, will lead to penalties
— Plays run tough but prone to getting stuck on stalk blocks
— Will need to get more comfortable playing in space, primarily boundary CB in college
— Lacks top-end production and lacks great starting experience, even rotated out in 2022
— Some medical concerns
The Steelers will have one more pick of the draft, #251. That came via the Allen Robinson trade that sent Pittsburgh’s #235 for Robinson and #251.
