Steelers position-by-position review: cornerbacks
This is part 13 in our position-by-position review of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers. If you haven’t read the previous installments, please click below:
If you haven’t read Part 1 (offensive tackles), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 2 (guards), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 3 (centers), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 4 (tight ends), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 5 (wide receivers), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 6 (running backs), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 7 (quarterbacks), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 8 (nose tackles), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 9 (defensive ends), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 10 (linebackers), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 11 (linebackers part 2), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 12 (safeties), click here.
Today we look at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ cornerbacks. Despite what you may have heard, 2011 was actually a good year for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ cornerbacks.
The Steelers were the #1 passing defense in the NFL last year. And that was in spite of not getting much pressure on the quarterback due to injuries to James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley. So it was the defensive backs who had to step up their game to offset injuries to the rush linebackers.
Let’s take a look at the cornerbacks, starting with…….
Ike Taylor
Ike has been the best cornerback on the Steelers for quite some time. But despite being the best cornerback on the best defense in the NFL, Ike has never gotten the recognition that he deserves. This is primarily because Ike doesn’t get interceptions like premier cornerbacks are expected to. It’s no secret; Ike can’t catch. But that doesn’t stop him from guarding the opposing team’s best receiver week after week. And Ike usually shuts him down.
Statistically, 2011 didn’t look like a good year for Ike. But numbers can be deceiving. For example, Ike had one of the worst seasons of his career in terms of the number of tackles that he made. But does that mean that he was ineffective, or that quarterbacks have learned to not throw in his direction?
‘Ike only had 2 interceptions in 2011. That’s nothing to write home about, but by Ike’s standards, that’s a pretty good year. In fact, he’s only exceeded it one time in his entire NFL career.
To get a true sense of how Ike played in 2011, let’s look back at the game against the New England Patriots where Ike played man-on-man against Wes Welker. Ike shadowed Welker all day, and he only allowed him 39 receiving yards and no touchdowns. Anytime you hold Wes Welker to 39 years, you’ve had a tremendous day. Ike also held Larry Fitzgerald to 78 yards and no TD’s. And he held A.J. Green to 36 and 87 yards in their two meetings.
I know that Ike let Tim Tebow burn him for a game-winning play in the playoffs. But who expected Tebow to throw the ball the way he did? I’m not excusing Ike, but I don’t think the Steelers’ coaching staff expected, or prepared for Tebow to play the way he did.
So don’t believe what you’ve been reading. Ike is as good as he’s ever been. Just don’t expect him to intercept the ball.
William Gay
William Gay signed a free agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals this week, so he’s no longer a Steeler. Nevertheless, he was on the squad in 2011, so I have to evaluate his play.
I was very hard on Gay throughout his career. And he deserved it. He got burned early and often during his time with the Steelers. But 2011 was a different story.
Gay won the starting position, and he played well. Whether fans want to admit it or not, Gay was a starting cornerback on the #1 passing defense in the NFL. He obviously played a role in that.
Gay had the highest number of passes defensed and interceptions of his career in 2011. But even more importantly, he had quite a few game-saving plays.
As much as fans may have hated William Gay over the years, you have to admit that he earned his paycheck in 2011.
Bryant McFadden
Who?
McFadden gets burned again.
Keenan Lewis
Like William Gay, Keenan Lewis had his best season in 2011. He got more playing time than he had ever received before, and he logged his best statistical season by far.
But more important than what Keenan Lewis did on the field, was what he didn’t do. He didn’t have the stupid penalties that plagued him during his first two seasons. That’s an important change.
As Keenan Lewis heads into his 4th season with the Steelers, it might seem that he is the obvious guy to replace William Gay. But when asked about replacing Gay, Mike Tomlin mentioned Cortez Allen and Curtis Brown. In fact, he had to be prompted before he mentioned Keenan Lewis. That may be a telling sign.
I like what I saw from Keenan Lewis last year. But he didn’t impress me enough to want to see him as a starter. I’m glad that coach Tomlin is going to give the two rookies a chance to win the position in 2012.
Curtis Brown
I love Curtis Brown. Last year, when every mock draft was saying that the Steelers should take Texas CB Aaron Williams in the first round, I said that I didn’t want Williams, and that I wanted the Steelers to take his teammate Curtis Brown in the 3rd round. The Steelers obviously heard me, because they did exactly that.
Curtis Brown was a dynamo on special teams. He seemed to make every tackle. And that definitely got Mike Tomlin’s attention.
Unfortunately, Brown injured his knee and was lost for the season. He had surgery in December, and should be ready in time for training camp.
Cortez Allen
Cortez Allen was the guy who really surprised people in 2011. He was an unknown commodity to most fans, having played at the Citadel.
But Allen worked his way up, and by the end of the season, he was seeing action in the Steelers’ dime packages.
At 6’1″, he’s a big cornerback. Moreover, he has a lot of athleticism. He was raw coming out of college, but I’m extremely excited about what we’re going to see from Cortez Allen in the years to come.
Anthony Madison
Though listed as a cornerback, Anthony Madison was primarily a special teams player in 2011. He has 1 start in his 6 year NFL career. I don’t think that he’s going to be in the mix for a starting job in 2012.
Cornerback seems like one of the few positions we do not have a significant need because Ike is still in his prime and we have three young guys who can compete for Gay’s job. Still we have nickel and dime packages and injuries to consider so we will need a free agent or draft pickup. I was surprised they let Gay go but money was tight and presumably this means the coaching staff is comfortable with the next three guys on the roster.
1McFadden is gone! Yay! And Ike had a pretty low percentage of passes completed against him, though I forget what the exact number was. Anyways, I’ve given William Gay tons of criticism over the years, but yeah, he was pretty good. Still, there is a lot of good, young talent at CB. It’s about time.
2Dan R. & Dan,
Yeah, I feel pretty good about the cornerback position, even though we lost William Gay. I think that both Curtis Brown and Cortez Allen have more long-term potential than William Gay.
I do think that we need more depth at the position (if only the team hadn’t let Crezdon Butler get away). So they should probably pick up a CB in the draft for depth. But I just don’t understand why everybody is saying that CB is one of the Steelers’ top 3 needs in this draft, while nobody is even mentioning the safety position even though the Steelers lack depth at both strong safety and free safety.
That’s why I don’t believe in following the herd when it come to the draft. The herd says that Dontari Poe is an early 1st round pick. That shows how much the herd knows. It also shows why I hate the NFL Scouting Combine. Poe wasn’t very impressive in college, but he did a lot of bench presses at the Combine, and suddenly he’s a 1st rounder. LOL!
I appreciate my readers. They’re much too intelligent to fall for that type of thinking.
3BTW Dan,
4I can tell that it was painful for you to admit that William Gay played well last year.
I agree that, after nose tackle, safety is the biggest concern on the defense, followed by linebacker.
5I would agree with all of the above assessment, other than I think ILB is slightly more important to look at fixing this year than safety… but I do think we need to start re-tooling the safety position soon. And I was impressed by what Lake did with our CB’s last year and have no problem with them going into this year with maybe only one addition to the unit.
6Steve,
I guess what makes me feel better about ILB is the fact that we do have some depth there. While Larry Foote may not be a Pro Bowl caliber player, we know that he can step in and start with no problem. We also have Stevenson Sylvester who is a young player, but who now has several years in the Steelers’ system. And James Harrison has played ILB before. So he could move there in a pinch, and Worilds could replace him on the outside.
But at safety, if Troy Polamalu went down, we’re screwed. Ryan Mundy has done very little in the playing time that he’s been given. And frankly, he’s gotten a lot.
IMO, Mundy is just like Jonathan Scott or Trai Essex. I don’t mind him as a backup, but I really don’t want him starting.
But clearly we need more depth at both positions. I just think that we can survive an injury better at ILB than we can at safety.
7BTW, this was the last installment in this series, next I’m going to rank the team’s needs going into the draft, and make a few suggestions for each position.
8Agreed. We do have young talent here (for a change!) I would expect the Steelers to add a CB late in the draft AND bring a few undrafted guys into camp. You needs a lot of these guys around (like WR) for camp and we might get lucky. As I said in last article, I see a Safety as a bigger draft need.
9Looking forward to talking about which prospects fit the Black & Gold best. Should be a spirited debate.
Ok… I see where you are going with that one! Makes sense to me now! I guess we’ll see what happens.
10@John#21,
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Steelers pick up a veteran free agent CB or safety off the junk pile once all of the other teams have finished bidding. But I’d like to see them take at least one of each during the draft.
We’ve got all of those 7th round picks, so hopefully they’ll take a risk on some guys with potential but question marks (e.g guys from small schools, or guys who played well in college, but who may be undersized).
11@Admin: Yes, yes it was a bit painful.
But, I was happy that he played well. He was an abomination the year before.
12I agree that there are bigger needs on defense than cornerback, but of there is a good one that falls, take him.
13I’m not understanding the Keenan Lewis thing, you probably had to prompt Tomlin because he hasn’t signed his tender yet (he will, but hasn’t yet). But here’s the point. If you remember, when Lewis came in the nickel and dime, Gay move to the slot and Lewis took the #2 on the outside…and did great. They threw at Ike much more than they threw his way when he was on the field. The short ones Lebeau likes to give up in front the corners, he was giving up no YAC. Now I don’t know what you guys saw in the total of 11 snaps he had in his first 2 years that seems to be blinding you as to this guys upside. Especially when you consider how little we’ve seen of Allen and even less of Brown, yet you seem to be sold waiting for confirmation.
Here’s the thing about corner, physical skills and abilities are a must, but they are only part of the story, making plays require that other level, anticipation, savy, knowing where to be when. That’s what make Ike the best corner on the team. The thing is that other level takes time to develop, plenty snaps, successes and failures. Keenan has demonstrated all the physical skills and is on schedule in his mental development. Allen and Brown hasn’t had enough snaps to even consider them as having started the process.
Ike is #1 Keenan is #2 and Allen, Brown, Rolle, or whoever can battle over the nickel and dime packages.
14I think the problem is we only notice the corners when they are thrown at, ran at, or blitzing. But if the coverage is right, QBs think twice. Often when he came in and manned up on some pretty good recievers I expected OCs to go at him, not so. Ike did well against the #1s…but a big reason we had the number 1 pass defense is the job Keenan did against some great #2s.
15Wait no one not one personnhere talked about whos the second starting cornerback with McFadden gone Ike is number one as always but who’s number 2?
16Jballer,
Going into training camp, Keenan Lewis will be #1 (assuming he signs returns to the team). But Allen and Brown will provide competition for him. So it’s impossible to know who will be #2.
But simply based on tenure, Keenan Lewis probably has the edge.
17Oh I see what u mean so one of them will be our number two cb and one of them will be the third nickel back
18Too much praise for Allen and Too little appreciation for Lewis. Before crowning Allen or Brown we need to see them matched up with the #1 or #2 receivers. Allen was matched up with the Patriots best tight end, not their best recievers. He did a great job and should be commended. But nobody is saying who was matched up with their best recievers in the same game. The overall assessment of these three young corners in this article appears bias. Lewis should also be commended for the role he played in helping the steelers end the 2011 season labeled as having the #1 pass defense. I am wishing Lewis, as well as Allen and Brown the best in 2012. If Lewis wins the job as the #2 CB it won’t be because of tenure, it will be because he EARNED it. Before we talk about being “impressed,” let the new season begin. Who knows, you just might be “impressed” by the Superbowl.
19