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: Up
Reasoning: Even though he gave up a bunch of plays in coverage last week against the Las Vegas Raiders, including a couple of touchdowns, Levi Wallace came down with two interceptions and had four passes defensed. His strength last season was his ability to take the ball away, so for that reason, for him showing that in the last game, I’m arguing that his stock his up. The rest of the game didn’t tell us anything about him we didn’t already know.
I think this one might be a little controversial based on the totality of his performance last Sunday night. I could easily have gone another way and argued that his stock is even precisely because his performance was uneven. But as I explain in my reasoning above, I feel the fact that he showed he has that play-making ability in his arsenal still and the resilience to have a short memory and respond in big moments works in his favor.
And on top of that, he had some of his best plays after exiting the game due to injury and returning. Let’s not forget about that. He didn’t miss much time, but he did have enough of an issue that he had to leave the field for a bit.
Now, where were we? Well, I don’t think we can really say that Wallace had a good game, on the whole. Just taking Pro Football Focus’ numbers, he allowed eight catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns. But he was also a very high-volume target, with 14 throws as the primary player in coverage, and he broke up four of those passes.
Two were interceptions, as noted, including the one that ended the game. His first interception came in a 7-7 game early in the second quarter, and he did a nice job of jumping the route, knowing that the ball would be coming out soon as the pressure was getting home.
Beyond that, he also got his hands on two other passes, and actually his best play came early in the fourth quarter, not too long I believe after returning from the sideline due to injury. He had a textbook breakup working against Jakobi Meyers, forcing an incompletion on fourth and 5 and a turnover on downs.
And did I mention that most of the damage done against him came courtesy of Davante Adams? You know, one of the great receivers of his generation? Do you want those guys to have big games on your watch? Of course not, but if it has to be somebody, it might as well be him. And Wallace made his plays along the way, so he gets credit for that, especially in light of his less than impressive play in the first two weeks of the season.
