Good Monday to you Steelers fans.
I’m going to invite you over to my “corner table” today. It’s the best place in the SCB Beach House Bar and Grill after all. You can see everyone who walks in and out and the restrooms aren’t right next to you, but there aren’t so far away that you’d actually consider peeing on our floor. It’s also called the ‘corner table’ because today I’m talking cornerbacks. More specifically, cornerbacks in this draft. For this exercise, remove the jerseys these guys played in at college. If you don’t your own personal biases will creep in. Last season, the Steelers spent about 30% of their time in man to man coverage of one sort or another. That ranked in the upper third of the NFL so they are clearly looking for guys who can play man. Pittsburgh also likes guys who are physical and can tackle well. The guy that’s best suited to this is probably Devon Witherspoon of Illinois who covers well and makes every tackle like you’ve just insulted his family. Christian Gonzalez is the best athlete of the bunch who does a little bit of everything. These two guys are likely to be gone in the top ten so unless the Steelers are going to move up, they can forget about either one. Joey Porter, Jr. is big and physical and checks a lot of the boxes Mike Tomlin looks for but he also has some limitations too. His technique his still a work in progress, he can get very grabby – leading to penalties – and he’s not the ball hawk you need either. He’s likely to be there at 17 but a guy with a higher ceiling and better man skills is Maryland’s Deonte Banks. He obviously doesn’t have the pedigree of Porter, Jr but when you see his M2M skills it’s hard to not like him. Mississippi State’s Emmanuel Forbes is probably the best ball hawking corner to come out in years with six INTs returned for TD. But he’s also about 177lbs. That’s not good and I’m not sure there’s room on his frame for more. Because this is a deep class, there are likely more targets in later rounds. Keep in mind the Steelers could use help at safety and nickel corner as well. Hope you enjoyed your stay at the SCB Bar and Grill. Tip you servers.
The Podcast
The latest edition of the SCB Steelers Podcast presented by DEK Roofing Inc of South Florida is available for your listening and/or viewing pleasure. We put our focus in this episode on the offensive side of the ball for the Draft. Check it out!
Tweet of the Day… So could I!
I could use a Sam Elliott reading me a bedtime story right about now.
— Tony P. (@Tbone7219) April 17, 2023
Follow Up From Last Week
I mentioned that I was surprised that Tyson Alualu hadn’t announced his retirement yet. The guys on the Podcast reminded me of two things. First, he’s not under contract and second, often times players don’t make ‘formal announcements.’ Many times they just drift away so to speak. Perhaps this is what Alualu is doing.
Speaking of Corners…
Believe it or not Ahekllo Witherspoon is still on the roster. Hard to believe right? Last we saw him he was getting torched in Philly. Injuries then kept him out of action for the season. Witherspoon has flashed at times with some good ball hawking skills but he’s also struggled mightily at times too.
Random Thoughts
I don’t think it’s a knock at all on C.J. Stroud to say you would take Bryce Young first. I just think Young has the “it” factor. The guy just makes play after play, he’s so well prepared and he’s got a winner’s mentality… I feel bad for Malik Willis. He was so overvalued in last year’s draft then he was put in an awful spot in Tennessee. He should have never seen the field last year… I won’t be surprised at all if the Steelers draft a center… If Jalen Carter’s only knock were the driving incident that killed a player and football official at Georgia, that would be one thing. The fact that was so out of shape and overweight at his Pro Day combined with his “I’m only visiting teams in the Top of the Draft” stance is more than enough to keep me from drafting him. And don’t get me wrong, the driving incident was awful. I’m just saying… And congrats to SteelSon who is in his final season of club soccer. The team started 2-0 this weekend with two clean sheets for the college bound goalkeeper!
Prospect Profiles
We’ve started our NFL Draft Coverage here at SCB and the first of our Position Profiles is out. We’ve made the decision that rather than make extensive profiles of each player, we are doing smaller ones and grouping them by position. This allows us to easier update information as Pro Days and the Combine provide more info.
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