Secondary Has An Opportunity To Overturn Years Of Lineup Instability

[polamalubeast]

For the first time in quite a while, it would seem, the Pittsburgh Steelers are in good position to enter the season with a starting secondary that finished the previous season and is likely to finish the year as well. The mostly-young grouping of cornerbacks Artie Burns and Ross Cockrell with safeties Mike Mitchell and Sean Davis are more or less the inevitable starters who are unlikely to be replaced at any point this season.

That is quite a change of pace from recent years, including just last season, during which both Burns and Davis usurped others as rookies to enter the starting lineup. Davis took the starting job from Robert Golden, while Burns kicked William Gay into the nickel role.

The year before, the Steelers envisioned opening the season with Shamarko Thomas and Cortez Allen in the starting lineup, but by the opener, it was Will Allen and Antwon Blake starting. And by the end of the year, Blake was losing snaps to Cockrell.

Mike Mitchell had just joined the team in 2014 as a new piece, but over the course of the year, Cortez Allen also lost his starting job to Gay. Brice McCain also ended up in the starting lineup as a result of injuries and ineffectiveness, starting nine games.

The same thing, frankly, happened in 2013 with Gay taking over for Allen. But back to 2012, Allen ended up starting while Ike Taylor was injured at the end of the season. It was also the only year in which Keenan Lewis was a full-time starter. Troy Polamalu also missed most of the season due to injuries. This is the closest they came to having a stable unit if you discount the injuries.

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http://www.steelersdepot.com/2017/05...p-instability/

[BlackAndGold]

Can't wait to watch these young players develop. A lot of upside for the secondary.

[polamalubeast]

Will the secondary be a strength by the end of this season?


This may be the most crucial question facing the Steelers in 2017 as it pertains to their Super Bowl aspirations. Quite simply, will their secondary emerge as a strength this season? Over the course of the last couple of years, they have been transition from liability to neutral territory, but with the investments they have made, they are looking for that return on investment.

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http://www.steelersdepot.com/2017/05...medium=twitter

[steelreserve]

Hopefully this will be like the offensive line, where investing several high draft picks finally resulted in a unit that's one of the best on the team.

Of course, you'll remember that before we had a competent position coach, the sum total of those efforts was that we had a lot of talented individual players and still had a shitty offensive line. I guess the jury's still out on Lake, but if he can't make it work with this group, my patience with him will be about out.