Mike Tomlin evaluates development of Joey Porter Jr., Cory Trice Jr.

The Pittsburgh Steelers certainly invested in their secondary this offseason, drafting two of the best cornerbacks from the Big Ten conference in this year’s NFL Draft in Penn State‘s Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice Jr. from Purdue.

With OTAs and mandatory minicamp over for the Steelers, their returning players and coaching staff have now gotten their first look a the duo of rookie cornerbacks. And after the final day of minicamp, head coach Mike Tomlin assessed the performance and the development of the two.

“You know they’re sharp guys, the type of institutions they went to, the caliber of ball they played, it wasn’t much that we introduced to them schematically that they hadn’t already been exposed to,” Tomlin said. “Both sharp guys.”

Both players may be sharp mentally, but the Steelers’ culture is quite literally in the blood of Porter Jr., who’s the son of linebacker Joey Porter who spent eight seasons with the Steelers and helped lead the team to a Super Bowl XL victory.

Pittsburgh clearly liked what they saw from the second coming of Porter selecting him with the No. 32 pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, representing the coveted first pick of the second round of the draft that came with numerous offers from other teams.

Trice Jr. on the other hand was selected later in the draft in the seventh round with the No. 241 overall pick. Trice Jr. is a lockdown corner in his own right, and according to Tomlin, adjusting to the differences between the college and professional game is the only learning curve the two rookie corners have really endured.

“I think that what to do is less of an issue for them and they’re making the transitional things that most corners do,” Tomlin explained. “The nuances of the game in terms of contact beyond five yards and stuff like that, the difference between college ball and professional ball, I think is kind of where a lot of the energy has been.”

Trice had 34 tackles, 10 passes defended, and two interceptions last season at Purude, while Porter recorded 27 tackles, 11 pass breakups, and allowed just 15 catches for 143 yards in coverage last season according to PFF.

The Steelers already had one of the strongest defensive units in the NFL last season, ranking No. 10 in points allowed per game at 20.4 and tying the San Francisco 49ers with the league lead in interceptions with 20. And if their new rookie corners can translate their college production to the pros, that defense could be even stronger than before in the 2023 season.