Pro Football Focus is putting a bow on the 2023 offseason, offering a recap for what all 32 teams have done since March. They’re not grades or rankings but blurbs on the best and the worst of the past several months.
For the Pittsburgh Steelers, the site said losing CB Cam Sutton was the team’s biggest subtraction, though it noted veteran Patrick Peterson helps make up for it.
“Cameron Sutton was a tough loss, but if newly signed Patrick Peterson can replicate his level of play from last season, the secondary should remain solid.”
Sutton left Pittsburgh to sign a three-year, $33 million deal with the Detroit Lions. It was a surprising departure and leaves a void in the Steelers’ defense at right cornerback and more importantly, a versatile chess piece in the team’s sub-package defense. Peterson is a heady veteran who the team will try to move around like Sutton but is older, less athletic, and an uncertain scheme fit in Pittsburgh’s secondary.
It’s not the only change in the room. Former first-round pick SS Terrell Edmunds left to sign with the cross-state Philadelphia Eagles. In his place, the Steelers added veteran Keanu Neal to be their next box safety. In the draft, Pittsburgh bolstered its cornerback room with Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice Jr., two players who could make an impact as rookies.
Pittsburgh could have early-season growing pains as the new pieces begin to gel but there’s still talent here for the defense to succeed.
On the other side, PFF called drafting Darnell Washington late in the third round their best move.
“Past foot injuries dropped Darnell Washington to the 93rd pick, but he is a supreme blocking talent with impressive receiving chops to match.”
Washington reportedly experienced knee swelling at the Combine and had at least one surgery in college. Given his tall and leaner lower half, he’s at a higher-risk for knee injuries when defenders go low and cut him down. Still, he was a potential first-round pick heading into the draft who fell to the end of Day Two. The Steelers traded down from #80 to #93 to recoup a fourth-round pick given up to get OT Broderick Jones in the first round and still picked up Washington, another example of the board breaking well in Pittsburgh’s favor.
Ultimately PFF concluded the Steelers are a “tough team to get behind” but acknowledged the team’s ability to exceed expectations when counted out. That part matters less but its analysis of the team’s offseason is fair in what’s been an eventful year for GM Omar Khan in his first full offseason at the helm.
