Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin disputes the notion that the trade that brought CB Donte Jackson here originated from a request by WR Diontae Johnson to find another home in the NFL. At least, he denied any knowledge of that during his comments at the annual league meetings yesterday.
Instead, he played up the trade as the Steelers landing a player they’ve long coveted, which aligns with Jackson’s comments. He said after the trade went through that Tomlin and Pittsburgh pursued him every step of the way. Tomlin basically said the same thing, or close enough to it, via Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
“We got an opportunity to get D-Jack, a guy we valued several times since he’s been in the league”, he said. According to Jackson, Tomlin heavily scouted him during the pre-draft process. He also said the Steelers were in the market for him when he signed his second contract and wanted him at last year’s trade deadline. Tomlin wanted him for “years and years”.
Call it delayed gratification, but now Tomlin has Jackson in his secondary, starting opposite Joey Porter Jr. The 28-year-old veteran brings 14 career interceptions to the table, though he posted zero in 2023. He tore his Achilles during the 2022 season, so should look closer to his old self this year, in theory.
A second-round pick out of LSU, Jackson lacks ideal size for a boundary cornerback, but he has great speed. He still showed his quickness a year ago returning from that Achilles injury, and the Steelers’ secondary can use speed.
Reporters such as Gerry Dulac beat the drum calling the Johnson trade addition by subtraction. Naturally, Tomlin paints a different picture, but I think we can ascertain that they value Jackson significantly as a player.
After all, I have no reason to believe that they didn’t pursue him via trade last year. The Baltimore Ravens recently acknowledged that they tried to trade for RB Derrick Henry last year before signing him this offseason. Those things happen all the time, and Tomlin already acknowledged several times that they “valued” him.
And what do you suppose he means by valuing? Reasonably, he’s referring to opportunities to have added him to the roster in the past. For what it’s worth, Brooke Pryor of ESPN quoted Tomlin as saying “evaluated”, which is contextually synonymous. The point is, they showed interest in him numerous times and now they have him.
The Carolina Panthers drafted Jackson five spots ahead of the Steelers in 2018, the latter selecting WR James Washington instead. At the time, they had Joe Haden as their top cornerback and still entertained notions of Artie Burns’s long-term viability. The latter ended up rotating with Coty Sensabaugh that season before losing his starting spot.
On top of everything else, Jackson agreed to a pay cut in coming here, so the Steelers netted some cap relief as well. That obviously suggests that Johnson was the higher-valued player in the trade, as we know. But everything we hear indicates that the Steelers genuinely valued Jackson rather than accepting him as a consolation prize.
