The offseason street free agent market flooded a bit more on Wednesday, and that’s not overly surprising with the start of the 2024 NFL league year now less than a week away. Included in the reported upcoming contract terminations on Wednesday were two notable and veteran cornerbacks in Tre’Davious White of the Buffalo Bills and Avonte Maddox of the Philadelphia Eagles. Those two will soon be looking for new teams, and both certainly play a position the Steelers could look to fill in the coming weeks.
As for White, who is expected to be a post-June 1st cut, the former 2017 first-round draft pick out of LSU has had issues with his health the last few seasons. He first tore his left ACL on Thanksgiving 2021. In 2022, White played in six regular-season games and two playoff games. He then, however, tore his Achilles four games into the 2023 season and was lost for the remainder of it.
Before sustaining his numerous injuries, White, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, only missed three games in his NFL career. To date, he has 18 interceptions, 68 passes defended, 311 tackles, and five forced fumbles. In 2019, he even tied for the NFL lead with six interceptions and was selected as first-team All-Pro.
For whatever it’s worth, Steelers HC Mike Tomlin was present at the LSU 2017 pro day to observe White and other draft hopefuls go through their paces. Tomlin also had great things to say about White ahead of the Steelers’ Week One game against the Bills in 2021.
“I can’t say enough about [Tre’Davious] White at corner. Highly productive, an elite guy at that position and has been for a number of years,” Tomlin said. “I know he’s been big in the recent history of this series in terms of his playmaking.”
White, as previously mentioned, is now coming off the dreaded Achilles injury, and with him now 29 years of age, it makes his future market value tough to evaluate. He was scheduled to earn a base salary of $8.35 million in 2024 prior to the Bills releasing him. If he can show that he’s now fully healthy, there should be a few teams interested in signing him.
As for Maddox, a University of Pittsburgh product, he was a fourth-round pick in the 2018 draft. Primarily a nickel cornerback, Maddox has missed significant time throughout his career due to injuries. He only played in nine games in 2022 due to ankle, hamstring, and toe injuries, and in 2023, a torn pectoral muscle suffered in Week Two kept him out until Week 17. Maddox has only played in 16 or more games just once in his career.
Maddox isn’t expected to be officially cut by the Eagles until after the start of the new league year next week as the early word is that he’ll be designated as a post-June 1st termination. He was scheduled to earn a base salary of $6.85 million in 2024.
Like White, Tomlin has previously had great things to say about Maddox.
“I know him very well. I have a lot of respect for him,” Tomlin said of Maddox ahead of the Steelers 2020 game against the Eagles. He’s one of the guys you get an opportunity to get close to when you’re neighbors like we are here in Pittsburgh. I just always loved his competitive spirit. It was very evident in his play. He wore it on his sleeve, and that was an attractive component of his game for me. I’m not surprised that he’s having the success that he’s having in the NFL. He’s a tremendous competitor. He’s a football lover.”
Will the Steelers have any sort of interest in White or Maddox? It’s obviously hard to say for sure right now. Even so, the Steelers could use a veteran cornerback or two this offseason, especially with how that position group looks right now.
As things stand currently, the Steelers have just two cornerbacks under contract for the 2024 season who played considerable snaps for them last season. Those two cornerbacks are Patrick Peterson and Joey Porter Jr.
As for the other two cornerbacks that saw notable playing time for the Steelers last season, Levi Wallace and Chandon Sullivan are both set to become unrestricted free agents next week. The same goes for CB James Pierre, who mostly played on special teams last season. While the Steelers do have two young cornerbacks under contract for 2024 in Cory Trice Jr. and Darius Rush, both are considered developmental projects at this point.
The 2024 draft class does look promising overall at the cornerback position, and thus, it won’t be surprising to see the Steelers select one this year. Even if they do that, however, they are likely to add a veteran or two to the room in the coming weeks or months. In the meantime, we’ll wait and see if White and/or Maddox are such targets.
