The Pittsburgh Steelers added some high-profile cornerbacks this offseason. Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey are both former All-Pros, and they’re both Super Bowl champions. While they might be past their prime, they should still improve the Steelers’ secondary. Alongside Joey Porter Jr., the Steelers believe that group of corners can be special this season. Slay shared that they understand the pressure that’s on them, which is why they’re excited to get on the field together.
“We got a real big deal on us,” Slay said Monday via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s YouTube channel. “We got a big chip going on. Got a lot of guys with a lot of great resumés here, so we just wanna put it on paper and on tape. That was a goal.
“We wanted to go out there and compete, continue to keep going because that’s our first time actually doing something live and going at it. It was fun. We wanted to go back out there again and play some more.”
The Steelers’ top three corners shared the field together in an actual game for the first time in the team’s preseason finale. It was a small sample size, and the results were mixed. Against the Panthers’ backups, the Steelers’ starters looked sloppy as a whole. That included their corners.
Ramsey made the most notable play among the three of them. He blew up a first-down run by the Panthers, stopping Trevor Etienne for a loss of three yards. However, he got called for an unnecessary roughness penalty, which led to that play hurting the Steelers more than it helped them.
Slay, Ramsey, and Porter didn’t play much after that. Mike Tomlin gave them a little bit of action, but he didn’t want to risk them in an ultimately meaningless game. They wanted to play more, as Slay said, but Tomlin didn’t acquiesce to that request.
It’s important not to overreact to how the Steelers’ starting corners looked in the preseason. For starters, their entire starting defense wasn’t on the field. T.J. Watt doesn’t play in the secondary, but he can affect their performance. Also, the Steelers didn’t want to give too much away about their defense in the preseason. They probably didn’t run too much of their best stuff.
We’ll see how the three of them look in Week 1. The New York Jets don’t have the most lethal passing attack in the league, but their offense has some talented players. Jets starting quarterback Justin Fields is very familiar with the Steelers as well.
The Steelers invested a lot in their secondary in the hopes that it will help them compete in the playoffs. They want to fight for a Super Bowl. Slay and Ramsey are both on the wrong side of 30, so it remains to be seen how much they have left in the tank. If they play at a high level, though, the Steelers might become a more serious player in the AFC.
