Throughout the illustrious history of the Pittsburgh Steelers, defense has been the calling card much more often than not, from the days of the Steel Curtain, to the Blitzburgh group to the mid-2000s group.
Those units all had one thing in common, too.
Outside of a great defensive front that got after the quarterback at a high rate, those Steelers defenses had tall, athletic, long cornerbacks such as Hall of Famers Mel Blount and Rod Woodson, and even a supremely underrated, yet very important piece in Ike Taylor.
Now, it appears that the Steelers are trying to get back to that to help combat the explosive, pass-happy league the NFL has become, at least according to Taylor.
Appearing on the Bleav In Steelers podcast with co-host Mark Bergin, Taylor stated that the Steelers are very clearly, at least in his mind, trying to get back to having those big, long, athletic cornerbacks, especially after the Steelers signed rookie Darius Rush off of the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice squad earlier in the week.
“Gimme them Mel Blounts, give me them Rod Woodsons, gimme them Ike Taylors. That’s all you are basically saying. Gimme them guys who, when the ball is in the air the quarterback has to be pinpoint every time. Them quarterbacks, regardless of if they’re going through pressure or not, they aren’t pinpointing it every time,” Taylor said to Bergin, according to video via Bergin’s YouTube page. “Gimme them Ike Ts, gimme them Mel Blounts, gimme them Rod Woodsons, them tall corners over six feet.
“… That’s really what the Steelers are trying to go back to, in my mind, but we’ll see. But it does make it harder for quarterbacks to throw over guys that are six feet over and some change. They’ve got range, they’re lanky, they can pick off the ball … it’s just a good matchup.”
Rush is just the latest addition to the Steelers’ cornerback room who fits that mold.
The Steelers drafted Joey Porter Jr. out of Penn State to open the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft at No. 32 overall. Then in the seventh round the Steelers added cornerback Cory Trice Jr. out of Purdue, giving the Steelers two “Avatar” cornerbacks to develop.
Though Trice got hurt in training camp, suffering a torn ACL, the Steelers are really trying to identify those big, long, athletic cornerbacks to bring in and mold in their system. That’s where Rush comes in.
The Steelers really liked Rush coming out of South Carolina and scouted him heavily, but they were unable to land him in the draft when he went in the fifth round to the Indianapolis Colts. Rush had a strong preseason with the Colts, including a pick-six, but the Colts cut him and tried to sneak him onto their practice squad before the Chiefs pounced.
Now, it’s the Steelers’ turn to poach.
Adding a cornerback with Rush’s measurables of 6-2, 198 pounds with 33 3/8-inch arms and a 79 5/8-inch wingspan gives the Steelers serious size with which to work. Heck, Porter checked in at 6-2, 193 pounds with 34-inch arms and Trice Jr. checked in at 6-3, 206 pounds with 32 3/8-inch arms.
The Steelers want that size, length and physicality at the cornerback position moving forward. They have that now in Porter and Rush, and with Trice recovering on Injured Reserve. Now it’s up to the coaching staff — primarily defensive backs coach Grady Brown — to get the most out of them.
That size and length makes it hard for quarterbacks to throw over — and against — them, like Taylor stated. Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson found that out the hard way in Week Five against Porter.
Pittsburgh’s trying to get back to a certain identity in the secondary, and so far it seems to be adding the right mix of players that match that size and those traits that made those past greats so successful.
