The one thing you hope doesn’t happen during training camp is someone going down with a season-ending injury. Something that stops a player in his tracks barely before he has time to get going. Unfortunately, teams are rarely that lucky and Tuesday rookie CB Cory Trice Jr. crumpled to the ground with a non-contact right knee injury. We still don’t know the exact nature of it other than it’s a “significant knee injury” as described by Mike Tomlin. Likely an ACL. Hopefully nothing more than that. Though uncommon, multiple ligament tears can happen.
Regardless, Trice’s season is over, the seventh-round draft pick placed on injured reserve yesterday. A name who appeared on many 53-man roster predictions, someone will have to take his spot. Trice’s injury sucks, it’s the dark underbelly of football’s return, but the focus shifts to those whose odds of making the roster just went up.
James Pierre – It’s hard to say if Pierre was directly battling Trice for a roster spot. But it’s plausible. Joey Porter Jr., Patrick Peterson, and Levi Wallace are the top three outside corners (Peterson will float around) and it’s likely the team was only going to carry one other outside player. Meaning Trice and Pierre could’ve been pitted against each other. Pierre’s odds of making the 53 just went up and he remains the team’s starting gunner, though he’s not quite as good as Miles Boykin.
In camp, Pierre has been fine but relatively quiet, not tested downfield like most of the other corners. A veteran, Pierre had been running ahead of Trice throughout camp so he’s not seeing additional reps due to Trice’s injury. But his odds of sticking have been boosted so long as he doesn’t embarrass himself in the preseason.
Chandon Sullivan – A slot corner, he and Trice were playing different positions. But if Pittsburgh keeps six corners, a guy like Sullivan could benefit from the numbers game. Sullivan’s best path may be as an early-down corner, and he was active on run plays Wednesday. The slot battle, as I’ll allude to throughout, remains pretty open.
Elijah Riley – While Riley is a slot/safety hybrid, the “DB math” of the total defensive backs carried into Week One can shift in his favor. Riley looks the part with an aggressive, downhill mentality, taking down Jaylen Warren for a three-yard loss. Patrick Peterson looks poised to be the team’s slot corner on passing downs, meaning the Steelers are searching for someone to align over slot on first and second down, filling Arthur Maulet’s role. Through the first week of camp, Riley is my early favorite and he’s gone from outside the bubble to on or inside of it.
Madre Harper – Harper’s odds of making the 53 remain slim but Pittsburgh is likely to keep one or two cornerbacks on its practice squad. Harper is a candidate to land there. Trice was drafted partly because of his size profile, a big and physical man-coverage cornerback. Harper has intriguing size at 6016, 196 pounds with nearly 34-inch arms, a little lankier but offering a similar profile to Joey Porter Jr. Reps have been hard to come by but Harper’s made a couple plays on the ball, including contesting a Mason Rudolph throw Wednesday. With Trice done, Harper immediately saw more third-team right cornerback reps, a trend that should continue the rest of the summer. It might be enough to allow him to stick on the taxi squad.
There’s several more names that could be added to this list. Other slot corner options like Duke Dawson or reserve outside corners in Luq Barcoo and even Chris Wilcox. It’s still early in the summer and what happens inside stadiums matters most. As disappointing as losing Trice is, there will be others who have the opportunity to replace him.
