There is a lot of hype for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense this year. Pittsburgh’s front is expected to be good per usual, but the two new cornerback they drafted this year, Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice Jr., have also been a driving force of the defensive hype. Both Porter and Trice are long and physical cornerbacks, and while those are obvious benefits, as young players they need to be careful of being too physical and grabby.
After day one of mandatory minicamp today, head coach Mike Tomlin emphasized how important it is that both Porter and Trice avoid taking penalties.
“Length is an asset if you’re clean, so they got to be penalty free,” Tomlin said in his press conference via Steelers.com. They got to know which way they’re going. Sometimes when you’re short, your COD (change off direction) is excellent, when you’re out of place you make up things faster, when you’re long you don’t. And so they’re very much writing their story about what they’re capable of being. I like their attentiveness, I like the attributes that they bring, but it’s premature to kind of paint a picture of where they are.”
Porter and Trice have been turning heads early, being impressive in both rookie minicamp and in OTAs, but this is a long way from Week One of the regular season. Porter, in particular, had problems being a bit grabby at the collegiate level. In the NFL he will be called way more often for holding penalties. Penalties are killers and if he can’t be clean he won’t see the field. Trice is another physical cornerback, so the same concerns of Porter apply to him as well.
Tomlin said it is too early to say where Porter and Trice are in their development. They haven’t even put on pads yet so that makes sense, but they are learning and reports are saying they look good. Tomlin also referenced benefits of being shorter and longer. While being shorter may allow you to change direction easier, being longer lends itself to jamming routes and make it take longer for receivers to get to where they need to be. With T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith coming off the edge, that can be huge and lead to negative instead of positive plays.
There is a long way to go until we see if Porter and Trice get significant playing time this season. One thing that seems likely to play a big part in whether the two rookies see the field is how well they can play within the rules. It will certainly be a big point of emphasis to watch during training camp this year.
