You don’t have to hear it directly from his mouth to sense that Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback Cory Trice Jr. comes into the league carrying a chip on his shoulder. The Purdue product lasted until late in the seventh round of the 2023 NFL Draft, but he was widely scouted as a much higher talent.
What’s his loss, the Steelers hope, is their gain. They believe that they got tremendous value in him, and on top of that, they have on their hands a very motivated player, to pair with their other rookie cornerback, Joey Porter Jr., who likewise believed he would be drafted earlier than 32nd overall.
“I just want to show them how good I really am”, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted Trice as saying during OTAs in a recent article. “I want to show them my coverage skills, show them how good I can track the ball; just go out there, be able to retain information and make plays”.
While there were some concerns about his game on tape, the primary reason that Trice fell was because of concerns that teams had about his medical status. These concerns date back some time, with Senior Bowl head Jim Nagy saying that he was tipped off by people in the NFL back in November. He said that he wouldn’t have been surprised for this reason if Trice went undrafted entirely, and added that was the reason he didn’t get an invite to the Senior Bowl in the first place.
While he has a notable injury history, including a torn ACL in September of 2021 that caused him to play through much of this past season wearing a restrictive knee brace, there is little he can do to control that.
All he can control is what he shows the coaches on the practice field, and that is where his focus resides. He wants to use his size, strength, and speed to show them that he is the player they thought he was and then some.
Medical concerns with draft prospects can be a complete crapshoot, if we’re being honest. Sometimes a team looks past them and drafts a guy where his talent dictates, and then injuries derail his career. Other times a player might slide entirely out of the draft and never have an injury concern throughout his career.
The Steelers took chances on two players with medical concerns this year, the other being third-round tight end Darnell Washington. He and Trice have been regarded by many as two of the best “value” selections of the entire draft.
Whether or not they are particularly valuable will depend in no small part on whether these players end up staying healthy. Injuries are always a part of the game, but that’s all the more reason you want to be more cautious with players with a higher risk of injury.
