With the Steelers’ 2023 offseason underway following a disappointing season that came up just short of reaching the playoffs, it’s time to begin reloading, through the free agency process, through the draft, and perhaps even through trade.
This is now a young team on the offensive side of the ball, though one getting older on defense, and both sides could stand to be supplemented robustly, including in the trenches—either one. Changes have been made to the coaching staff, even if not all of the desired ones, as the roster continues to renew with the weeks ticking by.
These sorts of uncertainties are what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
Topic Statement: Cory Trice Jr. will prove to be a diamond in the rough as a seventh-round pick.
Explanation: There is a lot of buzz right now about the 6’3” rookie cornerback out of Purdue, and not without justification, but there hasn’t even been any football yet. Can he develop into a starter over time, or at least as a very reliable primary backup and situational defender who logs a good number of snaps?
Buy:
Now is the time to stake your claim to the future, folks. Do you believe that Cory Trice Jr. is the real deal and will become a very solid player for the Steelers in time? Say so now. We can look back on this years later and laugh at ourselves for being wrong, or pat ourselves on the back for being right.
But look. Where you’re drafted doesn’t always reflect how NFL teams see your ability to play football. We already know that in Trice’s case it wasn’t his tape but his medicals that threatened to knock him out of the draft entirely.
Talent-wise, he has starter capability, so I’m going to say, yes, he’ll be that diamond in the rough, and he will be a starter on this defense by the end of his rookie contract—or elsewhere soon thereafter.
Sell:
We don’t even know if Joey Porter Jr. is going to be a diamond, rough or otherwise, and Porter is certainly the more talented player between the two. Trice had a nice college career, but that was playing college rules. For one thing, he’ll have to adjust his game in ways I’m not convinced he’ll be able to do consistently to conform to NFL rules.
A lot of the people convincing themselves after two weeks of OTAs that Trice is going to be some gem probably did the same thing talking themselves into buying James Pierre jerseys a couple of years ago. You can have all the physical attributes you want and still not succeed. He’s a poor man’s Cortez Allen with the same knees.
