The Pittsburgh Steelers front office has filled mostly every hole on the team ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft. The draft will allow them to continue to shore up the roster, but the front office has worked on toughening up this roster. Recently, safety suddenly became a top need. Just a day after he tweeted out his farewell to Pittsburgh, defensive back Terrell Edmunds signed with in-state rival, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Interestingly enough, his contract details were disclosed over the weekend, which included a base salary of $2 million. There is room for more money based off incentives, but just examining the base salary, either the Steelers wanted a new safety altogether, or Edmunds wanted a fresh start. The first one seems more likely, as it seems the team was never totally infatuated with the five-year safety. It took them awhile to bring him back on a one-year deal last offseason.
It seems the team wants more playmaking at that position alongside Minkah Fitzpatrick, as Edmunds didn’t really bring that to the team. While there isn’t much left on the free agent market, Taylor Rapp seemed like a good fit. On Monday morning though, he signed with the Buffalo Bills. Dale Lolley of Steelers.com presented an interesting scenario that was brought up by head coach, Mike Tomlin on Monday.
That’s right, a possibility that Patrick Peterson plays a little bit of safety in 2023 (and even 2024). This shouldn’t be too surprising for the player, as older, aging cornerbacks often times convert to safety as they become slower. Hall of Famer Charles Woodson is the perfect example of that. After being an eight-time Pro Bowler at cornerback for the first 14 years of his career, he moved to safety for his last four seasons.
He excelled quite well, as he was able to make his ninth Pro Bowl in his final season in 2015 with the Oakland Raiders. That’s not to say Peterson will have the same success, although he will likely be joining Woodson in Canton in the future. Peterson already has eight Pro Bowl appearances in 12 seasons, just one away from Woodson. If he can play some safety though, it certainly gives the Steelers even more flexibility with their secondary.
Where does this leave the Steelers' needs in the secondary?
Tre Norwood is a guy currently on the team that can play both corner and safety, albeit not at a necessarily elite level. This almost certainly re-assures that the Steelers will be adding *at least* one more cornerback to the team this offseason. The loss of Cam Sutton was big, but that was seemingly washed out by the signing of Peterson. Cornerback remained a top need though, and with the 12-year veteran possibly playing some safety, it re-assures the need.
At this point in the offseason, the 2023 NFL Draft makes the most sense for a reinforcement at the position. This cornerback draft class is much stronger than the safety class, perhaps part of the reason why the team is entertaining Peterson playing some safety. With the 17th overall pick, it seems likely that the black and gold will take a corner (or offensive tackle).
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