While the Pittsburgh Steelers may have CB Donte Jackson back against the Kansas City Chiefs, CB Joey Porter Jr. suffered a knee injury in the team’s Week 16 loss against the Baltimore Ravens, leaving his status against the Chiefs in doubt. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said Monday that he expects both James Pierre and Cory Trice Jr. to see defensive snaps against Kansas City.
“Whoever has the hot hand will probably see more reps,” Austin said via Mike DeFabo of The Athletic on Twitter.
Austin said the original plan against the Ravens was to alternate Pierre and Trice.
“I think those guys did a good job. We went into the game with the idea we were going to kind of alternate those two guys and not overload either one of them, but circumstances had it where they had to play and I thought they both — while not perfect, both really competitive, both really gave us some good snaps. So we’ll move into this week with the idea they both have to play. Whoever has the hot hand will probably see more reps than the other,” Austin said via transcript provided by the team.
Porter exited during Baltimore’s first offensive series, and while he later returned, he was ruled out for the rest of the game after playing one series in the second half. With Jackson out due to a back injury, Pierre and Trice played the majority of the game. Neither one of them particularly stood out, and for Trice, it was his first game action since Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers. While there isn’t much time to practice ahead of the Chiefs game on Wednesday, Trice can expect to see the field and with his feet under him after playing most of the game against Baltimore, he should be ready to roll against Kansas City instead of coming in cold against the Ravens.
Pierre has played more this season as he’s filled in for Jackson when he’s left games due to injury. That has happened multiple times this season, and Pierre had an interception in Week 14 against the Cleveland Browns. It’s not ideal having to play backup cornerbacks this late in the season, especially with Pittsburgh’s depth thin on the outside. But Pierre and Trice know that the onus will be on them to step up and try to mitigate the potential loss of Porter if he can’t go.
Whoever winds up seeing the field more will be a decision that’s made in-game. It would be reasonable to expect Pierre to start given that he’s played more for Pittsburgh this season, but Trice is more similar to Porter in his play style and body type. He’s listed at 6-3 and 206 pounds compared to Porter’s 6-2 and 193 pounds, so as a direct replacement to Porter, the Steelers could turn to Trice. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out, and it’ll be up to one of them to prove to the coaching staff that they should see the majority of snaps with a strong performance on Wednesday.
