Steelers Draft Needs: Cornerback

Unless injuries or some other unknown intervenes, the Steelers 2013 corner three-some should be Ike Taylor, Cortez Allen, and William Gay.

• Yes, the Steelers will miss Keenan Lewis there, but that’s not a bad first three corners.

Behind them they have Courtney Brown, Josh Victorian, DeMarcus Van Dyke, and Justin King, all of whom have some game experience. Isaiah Green is also on their roster.

• Nonetheless, the Steelers cannot ignore cornerback in the 2013 NFL Draft

Certainly the Steelers long and short term needs at corner are less severe than at other position areas. But Ike Taylor isn’t going to play forever, and last year injuries took the Steelers to the point where they were playing their 5th and 6th corners.

With the passing game evolved to what it is in today’s NFL, the Steelers can simply ill afford to ignore a quality corner, especially if one falls to them early in the draft, including the first round, however unlikely that may be.

There’s another reason to think long term here. Playing behind Taylor are two other thirty somethings, by the names of Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu.

The first ability that Father Time typically robs an NFL player of is his speed.

• Biological realities all but dictate that Ike Taylor will have “slowed a step” by 2015 if not by 2014.

If and moment arrives, and if by that time that Ryan Clark and/or Polamalu need to begin what Chuck Noll called “Life’s Work” then it is completely feasible that Taylor might still have enough speed to finish his career at safety, the way Rod Woodson did (and should have done in Pittsburgh, but that’s another story.)

And that’s why if fate allows a blue-chip corner to fall to the Steelers in the 2013 NFL Draft they’d be wise to take him.

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