Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: CB Levi Wallace
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: While he enters training camp as a starter, it could be difficult for Levi Wallace to keep hold of his playing time after the Steelers added CB Joey Porter Jr. 32nd overall. Many expect the second-generation Steeler to be a starter on day one, which, if so, could come at Wallace’s expense. Whether or not it will depends on what happens in the slot.
It might seem odd to you that we’re talking about the playing-time implications for Levi Wallace from the draft on the eve of training camp, but that’s where we begin to learn how immediate the effects will be. it also happens to be when I’m finally getting around to writing about it, in full disclosure. The last time I wrote about Wallace was the end of January, so a lot has happened since then.
While Cameron Sutton (and Ahkello Witherspoon and William Jackson III and Arthur Maulet) are gone, they have been replaced by Patrick Peterson, Joey Porter Jr., Cory Trice Jr., and Chandon Sullivan. At least two of them will be on the field most of the time—possibly three.
At the moment, either Peterson or Sullivan is going to be the primary slot defender. If it’s Peterson, then it would allow Wallace and Porter to be on the field together. If it’s Sullivan, then Peterson is going to be on the outside on one spot, leaving Wallace and Porter to fight over one spot.
So that’s why I’m writing a stock down report for the sixth-year veteran now, because over the course of the next several weeks we’re going to start figuring out just what Wallace’s role will be this year. It could range anywhere from a 1000-plus-snap starter to just the first cornerback off the bench in the event of injuries.
Determining which one that will be, outside of Wallace’s own performance, are two variables: how quickly Porter gets up to speed and shows he can be a starter, and whether or not Peterson can acclimate himself to what would essentially be a full-time slot position.
It will be quite interesting to see just how it all goes down, but I do have to say that this is a nice problem to have for the Steelers. At least in theory, their best starting three should be Peterson, Wallace, and Porter, but that’s assuming Peterson holds up in the slot. Sullivan as a 6-700-snap player is not what you want to rely on, either, but it’s one of the two most likely options.
