With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 season over, the team finishing above .500 but failing to make the postseason, we turn our attention to the offseason. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on broader contexts, reflecting on a player’s development, either positively or negatively, over the course of the season. Other evaluations will reflect only one immediate event or trend. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: CB Cory Trice Jr.
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The rookie seventh-round pick is garnering a lot of attention following reports of an impactful OTA session yesterday. He is said to have recorded an interception and two pass breakups on the day, but there’s still a long way to go in the journey of proving himself in the NFL.
Purdue’s Cory Trice Jr. thought he would have been drafted much higher than the seventh round. Most scouts seemed to concur that his tape told a more encouraging story than did team doctors, with many around the league apparently concerned on the medical front after, among other things, in 2021 tearing his ACL.
What’s done is done, however, and in the past. He’s here now, and he’s just starting to make plays. Two weeks into OTAs, it seems he’s beginning to grow more comfortable, and according to reports, it’s showing on the field.
It translated into quite a bit of media attention for him yesterday, something it didn’t seem he was accustomed to. He genuinely appeared to appreciate the implied recognition for his talents that the swarm of cameras and microphones meant, and he was open to indulging reporters who hung around to ask a couple final questions after the initial crowd dispersed.
Good for him, of course, but he’ll have to continue having days like this, first in mandatory minicamp in a couple of weeks, then in training camp, and then in the preseason, if he wants to even have the chance of duplicating that in a meaningful game on an NFL field.
Not that he can’t or won’t. After all, the only thing he can accomplish right now is to look good during OTAs, since that’s all that’s going on right now. It’s one step at a time, and his first step is heading in the right direction. That’s all you can ask for.
Trice is one of two big, tall cornerbacks the Steelers drafted this year, the other being second-rounder Joey Porter Jr. While not as flashy, reports on him have been positive as well. They are competing with Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace, as well as James Pierre, at the outside cornerback position, but it will take time—at least for the seventh-round pick—to climb the ladder.
