Remembering what happened last season when Tom Brady tore apart their secondary in the AFC championship game, the Steelers are focusing on improving their ability to play man-to-man pass coverage and finding players who can help.
They haven’t had to look very far to find a cornerback who can.
His name is Artie Burns, last year’s first-round pick who played man and zone schemes at the University of Miami, often in press coverage at the line.
Secondary coach Carnell Lake made a point during minicamp to single out Burns as a player who can help them execute more man coverage in the secondary. The Steelers do not plan to switch primarily to man coverage in 2017, but they do want to use it more to help diversify their coverage schemes.
“He’s really progressing well in that area,” Lake said. “He’s being physical. He’s challenging Antonio Brown, arguably one of the best receivers in the league, in practice every day. And that’s just going to make him better. The more confident he is covering someone like A.B., the more he should be able to transfer that to our competitors to get ready to start the season.”
The Steelers have paid a lot of attention to the cornerback position in the past three drafts, bringing in Burns with their top pick in 2016, Senquez Golson with their second-round pick in 2015 and selecting Cam Sutton on the third round in April.
They were hoping the infusion of youth and speed at the position — along with safety Sean Davis, last year’s second-round pick — would drastically improve their secondary. And, while the back end of the defense made big strides in 2016, the debacle in New England in the conference championship game pointed out the need for even more improvement this season.
So, just two years after coach Mike Tomlin and defensive coordinator Keith Butler implemented a lot of cover-two zone schemes, the Steelers want to play even more man coverage in 2017.
“We’re putting a big emphasis on that, just to help us be more diverse on defense,” Lake said. “We think we got some guys who can do it.”
One of them is Burns, who is eager for the challenge. A top 60-meter hurdler in track and field at Miami, Burns said he wanted to get stronger this year, so he can lock up with some of the league’s taller receivers. Just about every day in practice, he uses his athleticism to line up against Brown and try to cover the five-time Pro Bowl receiver.
“I want to be in better condition, try to get stronger to be able to deal with big receivers, guys like Dez [Bryant], Julio [Jones], Martavis [Bryant], guys who are real big but can still stretch the yard on you,” Burns said. “That’s why I wanted to make sure I was strong enough to head up those guys.”
Lake did not sound so excited about Golson, who hasn’t played a game of any kind — regular season or preseason — since he was drafted. And his two-year absence from the game because of injuries has caused the Steelers to have little hope he can help the secondary.
Golson missed all of last season with a Lisfranc foot injury, and Lake said he “would expect to see some drop off [in speed] there. I hope between now and start of training camp he goes home and really works on that aspect of his game. We need that.”
Lake even went so far as to suggest that Golson will have to prove he can be an effective special teams player if he wants to make the 53-man roster.
“The good part about Senquez is he’s practicing,” Lake said. “We just haven’t had a lot of snaps out of Senquez. Usually, for the last two years, he has been able to participate at this point. It’s training camp where I’d like to see him move on and get past the injuries that have plagued him and stay healthy and hopefully make the team and be a contributor.
“[Special teams] coach [Danny] Smith will look at him as being one of those gunner-types, a special teams core guy because of his athleticism. Being a second-rounder, more is expected out of him. He’s basically going to have to make this team on two different levels — he’s going to have to make it as a special teams guy, and he’s going to have to make it and compete for playing time in the secondary. There’s a lot on Senquez’s plate. We expect more out of him, just because of where we got him, even though he’s missed two years.”
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com.
First Published: June 18, 2017, 4:04 a.m.
