When the Pittsburgh Steelers scooped up Purdue CB Cory Trice Jr. at the tail end of the 7th round, it felt like a steal. On tape, he had the talent of someone who should go rounds earlier than that. To hear it from one of the people inside the Steelers’ building putting a grade on Trice, the team thought of him far higher than a late 7th rounder.
On Friday’s episode of The Terrible Podcast, former Steelers’ scout Mark Gorscak, who left the team after nearly 30 years, revealed his grade on Trice and his thoughts on the value to get him at #241.
“I had a fourth round grade on him, to tell you the truth,” Gorscak told the show. “You gotta realize there’s only so many slots and all that stuff. You get down to about the fifth round, midway through the fifth round, they become graded free agents. You do 32 times the number of rounds and compensatory picks and you only really need about 150 guys, 158 guys to draft from. But I had a fourth round grade on him. I wanted to draft him in the third day someplace.”
Trice was considered a late-riser in the media, pre-draft process, with a blend of height, weight, and speed. A new-age corner with size and length, he ran in the 4.4’s at his Boilermakers’ Pro Day, a faster time than expected. Long speed was one of his biggest concerns, a former safety who the team moved to corner, but his combination of athleticism, ball skills, and physicality was attractive.
However, injury concerns turned out to be team’s biggest concern with Trice. He tore his ACL in 2021 and battled ankle and groin injuries throughout his career, including a broken ankle in high school, that made teams weary of spending a high pick on him. Until the 7th round, Pittsburgh had only one Day Three selection, using it on LB Nick Herbig, and seeing Trice still on the board at #241 made him a no-brainer in Gorscak’s mind.
“Getting him into the seventh round is a steal. Because he has size, height, weight, speed, number one. He was Academic All-American. Yeah, he had some injuries.”
To be clear, Gorscak’s 4th round grade wasn’t the only one issued in that building. His report was one of several compiled by the team. There was one from him, DBs Coach Grady Brown, DC Teryl Austin, along with Mike Tomlin, Omar Khan, and Andy Weidl having their own tape study and evaluation.
Trice earned glowing reports in OTAs, impressing with his ability to play the football. It’s still a small sample size and the spring is less about evaluating as much as it is setting the foundation for young players but there’s potential that Pittsburgh got a diamond in the rough to land in their laps. As Mike Tomlin has always said, it doesn’t matter how you got here. All that matters if what you do with the chance.
“Outstanding to get a guy like that in the seventh round,” Gorscak said. “I’m sure there was other people who wanted him also. You hear all the draft stuff before that someone wanted him before, someone wanted him after and all that stuff. All I know is we got him. We’re real happy with him.”
