With a significant need at the cornerback position entering free agency, the Pittsburgh Steelers struck quickly at the official start of the new league year, landing both Darius Slay and Brandin Echols, adding two experienced, productive veterans to the room alongside the likes of young cornerbacks Joey Porter Jr., Cory Trice Jr., and Beanie Bishop Jr.
Slay is a well-known commodity, having put together a borderline Hall of Fame career. At 34 years old, he’s long in the tooth, but he’s coming off of a Super Bowl-winning season and will provide leadership and dependability in the secondary as the group looks to rebound after a tough 2024 season.
Plus, he has familiarity with defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, dating back to his time in Detroit.
Echols, on the other hand, is a bit unknown. That’s what we’re here for at Steelers Depot. Let’s take a deep dive into the 27-year-old cornerback, taking a look at the film in the process.
Over the last four seasons, Echols has been with the New York Jets, where he landed as a sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Kentucky at No. 200 overall. Echols played 1,380 snaps for the Jets in those four seasons, with 1,057 snaps at boundary corner, 169 snaps in the slot, and 122 snaps in the box, according to Pro Football Focus.
In those 1,380 snaps, Echols recorded five interceptions and 16 pass breakups, adding two pick-6s to his resume. In coverage, Echols has been charged with 90 receptions allowed on 139 snaps for 1,114 yards with six touchdowns.
On top of his defensive work, Echols played 707 special teams snaps, including 185 last season with the Jets.
With the stats and the experience, it seems like the Steelers are getting a good depth cornerback. Is that what the tape says? Let’s take a look.
BALL SKILLS
Echols’ ball skills are very impressive. He has a nose for the ball, and when it’s in the air, he’s making a play on it. He’s a bit undersized at 5-10, 175 pounds, but he’s a feisty cornerback who puts himself into the mix physically and lets his ball skills shine.
You don’t return two of your five interceptions for touchdowns on accident, either. He’s a legitimate playmaker in the secondary.
When the ball is in the air, and Echols is in phase, chances are he will make a play on it, whether it’s somehow coming down with an interception or recording a PBU.
Here against Tennessee during the 2024 season, Echols did a tremendous job of turning and running here with Titans’ receiver Treylon Burks, getting back into phase after losing some contact early, and then somehow playing through Burks’ hands and finishing the play for the interception.
Later in the season, on the road against Minnesota, Echols showed the ball skills again, making a diving catch on an overthrow from then-Vikings’ QB Sam Darnold for a key interception in Minnesota territory.
You see these types of opportunities all the time for cornerbacks, but they struggle to finish the play and take advantage of the opportunity. Credit to Echols here for finishing the play. It’s a good example of his ball skills and the ability to capitalize on a play for his defense.
His two pick-6s in his career came against the Miami Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa. They occurred when he was able to fire downhill on quick out-routes, jumping the route and showing off his hands to pluck the ball away from his body for the interception, leading to the walk-in touchdowns.
The two pick-6s are very similar but occur on either side of the formation. The fact that he victimized Tagovailoa on both is somewhat ironic, too.
COVERAGE
While Echols’ ball skills are impressive, I like his work in coverage overall, too.
He’s rarely beaten cleanly in coverage, and throughout his film, he’s consistently in tight coverage. The problem is that bigger, stronger receivers are able to make plays above the rim against him, including Amari Cooper and George Pickens.
The touchdown allowed to Pickens in Week 7 against the Steelers at Acrisure Stadium was a bit of a bad rep for Echols. His initial punch in press coverage was slow, giving Pickens a clean vertical release. From there, Echols was in catch-up mode. Though he’s in Pickens’ hip pocket, Russell Wilson threw a great ball, and Pickens made a play above the rim on Echols.
It was a similar thing here against Cooper in Week 17. Echols does well to stay over the top in coverage and run with Cooper on the vertical route, but he’s unable to make the play through contact in the air, losing out to Cooper for the score.
Going back to the game against the Steelers, Echols found himself matched up with Pickens time and time again. For the most part, Echols played well and was in a good position. Pickens just made plays in contested catch situations, much like he did here on this 44-yarder.
Echols is in a good position, runs stride for stride with Pickens, and is right there at the catch point. Pickens was just better on the play.
Still, even with some of the receptions he’s given up, you just have to tip your cap to the receiver in some instances. It’s not as if Echols just gets flat-out beat on the route. He’s losing at the catch point. You’d rather have a guy in phase and be able to contest the catch point than not. It sounds obvious, but there are not many corners in the league like that.
TACKLING
Where I was most disappointed in Echols on tape was his tackling. Echols missed 10 tackles on the year, including three in the Week 7 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers and three in the Week 18 game against the Miami Dolphins.
In his career, Echols has 25 missed tackles in 111 total attempts, good for a 22.5% missed tackle rate. During the 2024 season, Echols’ 10 missed tackles gave him a missed tackle rate of 16.4% on 61 total attempts. Not great! That said, it’s an improvement on the 23.1% miss rate that Donte Jackson had for the Steelers in 2024, when he had 12 missed tackles in 52 total attempts.
Echols has some good reps on tape as a tackler, especially in space. He’s able to stay square to the ball carrier, is patient, and wraps up, ensuring he can make the tackle.
This rep against Tennessee early in the season on tight end Josh Whylie is a good stop after an easy completion for the Titans. Echols stays square, uses the sideline as an additional defender, and then is able to stay square, drive through, and make the stop.
He plays larger than his size, which fits in well with Pittsburgh. He’s not a guy who is going to have a bunch of clips on tape of him blowing up guys, but he plays a physical style of football and will throw his weight around.
But more often than not, he doesn’t have the strength to finish plays, especially in the run game.
Here against the Steelers in Week 7, he’s coming downhill in run support against Najee Harris. While he tries to wrap up, he’s unable to finish the play as Harris steps right through the tackle attempt, allowing him to get to the corner and pick up a chunk of yardage.
Harris did that to many defensive backs, though, throughout his four years in Pittsburgh. What I like about Echols in run support is that he isn’t afraid to come downhill and put his face into the fan.
This rep against Miami near the goal line against De’Von Achane was positionally and technically sound from Echols. Square to the LOS, work downhill, drive through the legs with the shoulder, and cut down the runner for no gain.
Overall, I like what I saw on tape from Echols over the last two years. He’s a sound coverage corner with some great ball skills. Due to his smaller stature, he’ll have issues against bigger, physical receivers at the catch point, but he’s not a guy who’s going to be out of position much or blow coverages.
Chances are, too, he will make some splash plays in the process, thanks to his great ball skills. He has a good feel for route concepts, has the speed to stick with vertical and crossing routes on the boundary, and has had success against several different types of receivers in his four seasons in the NFL.
Where I have concerns, though, is as a tackler. He has the want-to to come downhill and make stops in run support, and he has good fundamentals in space. But he just racks up misses at times when he ducks his head or fails to wrap his arms up properly, leading to misses. The 25 misses over four seasons are concerning, but for a guy who profiles as the depth at the moment behind Porter and Slay, he’s a guy who can be counted on in all situations and shores up the depth in a significant way for the Steelers.
