PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers have opened the 21-day practice window for cornerback Cory Trice Jr., the team announced on Wednesday.
Trice has been out since suffering a hamstring injury while covering a punt in the team’s Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. He will remain on the injured reserve list for now. The team now has three weeks during which Trice can practice without being on the 53-man roster. If he remains on the injured reserve list longer than those 21 days, he must stay there for the remainder of the season.
Trice told Steelers Now on Wednesday that he is trying to return this week against the Baltimore Ravens, though he will have just two practices to prove his readiness. If not this week, Trice said he expects to return next week against the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night football.
“I’m pushing for this week,” he said.
Head coach Mike Tomlin was noncommittal about Trice’s inclusion this week when he spoke to the media on Tuesday.
“We’ll just kind of let their participation be our guide in terms of whether or not they get back on the train or not, guys like Cory Trice, for example,” Tomlin said.
The Steelers’ seventh-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Trice missed his entire rookie season with an ACL injury suffered in training camp. He made his NFL debut this September, and had been expected to serve as the Steelers’ No. 3 cornerback and a key special teamer before his injury. James Pierre has been filling that role with Trice out.
Trice has been an exciting prospect since he joined the team, with 6-foot-3 size and advanced coverage technique for a player of his experience level. The idea of pairing Trice with another big, physical cornerback from the same draft class in Joey Porter Jr. could set the Steelers up at the position for years.
Though Trice was only a seventh-rounder, that hype was at least somewhat grounded in reality. Coming out of Purdue, he was expected to be an early Day Three or late Day Two draft pick, but fell due to injury concerns. Those concerns have proven legitimate, with two major injuries and just three games played over two season. But as Trice rounds back into the fold at mid-season, the Steelers will certainly want to get more than a short glimpse of what he’s capable of.
In addition to Trice and Pierre, Cam Sutton, who just returned from an eight-game suspension, can play outside cornerback for the Steelers behind starters Porter and Donte Jackson.