When the Pittsburgh Steelers signed cornerback Patrick Peterson in free agency this offseason it was expected that he would end up mentoring a young cornerback that the Steelers were expected to draft. Pittsburgh ended up drafting two cornerbacks in this year, Joey Porter Jr. in the second round and Cory Trice Jr. in the seventh.
Today, Trice met with the media and, via video posted on the Steelers’ YouTube page, explained how Peterson has been a big help in mentoring him.
“Any question I got he always answers them,” Trice said. “He always gives me pointers on and off the field and he’s just a really good guy. That’s a guy who I looked up [to] and now I’m on the field with him, so [it’s] definitely a dream come true.”
Peterson is a future Hall of Famer who, despite being 32 years old, is coming off a pretty good season. Last year with the Minnesota Vikings, Peterson recorded 15 pass breakups, five interceptions, and allowed a quarterback rating of 79.6 when targeted. He still has some gas left in the tank, but with Porter and Trice clearly being the future Peterson will be tasked with teaching them the tricks of the trade.
Like Peterson, Porter and Trice are big and lengthy cornerbacks. While they don’t have the blazing speed Peterson did when he entered the league there are similarities in build that Pittsburgh’s two rookies have with Peterson, which can help in how Peterson can mentor and teach them. Peterson can teach them the techniques he knows and uses because they are built so similarly.
Trice has had a strong OTAs so far with media members noting how he has been a standout performer. There is a long way for him to go to be a good cornerback come the regular season but having a player like Peterson to help is certainly not going to delay that process.
Trice and Porter they will likely be thrown into the fire early in their careers as Pittsburgh does not have great cornerback depth. That is why it will be so valuable that they have a guy like Peterson, who is going into his 13th season, to be able to help them understand coverages at the NFL level and teach them ways to trick opposing quarterbacks.
