Steelers CBs Could Be a Major Liability in 2024

Along with wide receiver, cornerback depth is a legitimate concern heading into the 2024 season for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Joey Porter Jr. is a bona fide No. 1 cornerback but after that it gets worrisome.

The Steelers acquired cornerback Donte Jackson in the Diontae Johnson trade to Carolina, but he didn’t really have a strong 2023 campaign. According to Sports Info Solutions, Jackson allowed a 101.4 passer rating and 8.1 yards per attempt when targeted last season.

The Steelers will face a plethora of elite quarterbacks in 2024 — Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson (twice), Joe Burrow (twice), Justin Herbert, Aaron Rodgers and Jalen Hurts. Deshaun Watson (twice), Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins are also set to play Pittsburgh this season.

Chris Simms of NBC Sports thinks the Steelers’ DBs could be a major liability this season.

“I’m not big on their DBs, right? Their corners, right? I know everybody likes Joey Porter Jr. and all that, but to me, my other question for them would be, can they play man-to-man against the really good offenses in football? And I’m not sold on that,” Simms said on his Unbuttoned podcast. “Joey Porter’s got attitude. He’s certainly got a role. He had a damn good year. I get all of that. But you get to the rest of the names at DB for them. I just go, ‘Okay. Alright. So who’s covering Tee Higgins when you play Ja’Marr Chase and them, or who’s covering the other guy?’”

The Steelers could bring back veteran Patrick Peterson or Chandon Sullivan to serve in the slot cornerback role. Cam Sutton is also a potential option, but there’s significant off the field issues to worry about. The Steelers met with Sutton a few weeks ago.

“You know, we’ll see,” Khan said on WDVE Morning Show. “We did meet with Cam, I think it was a couple weeks ago. It was more than just about the situation here, we just wanna see how he was doing. We spent six years with Cam, and they were a good six years with Cam. It was a good experience, and obviously, he had an opportunity to go to Detroit – had to make a business decision, but we’ll see. I will say this, I do like the depth we have at the position. You know, there’s some young guys in there that are gonna compete and have a lot of traits to be really good nickel corners, and I really like that group. … We’ll see what the future holds.”

Khan thinks undrafted free agent Beanie Bishop Jr. out of West Virginia could make some noise at the slot corner position.

“Yeah, Beanie Bishop. I can’t tell you how excited we were to have an opportunity to sign Beanie Bishop after the draft. We had him here for a visit. When he was here, we talked about our defense and how he would fit in. We really felt like he was a guy that could come in here and compete,” Khan said, via SteelersNation.com.

“We were able to do business with him after the draft. I think he’s going to have a great opportunity at nickel to help us this year. He has great special teams value.”