The Pittsburgh Steelers' 53-man roster is nearly complete. Entering their final week of training camp, the team has answered almost all of their questions, but a glaring piece is missing, and they can't fill it with the players they have.
Heading into training camp, James Pierre and Luq Barcoo felt like an exciting battle. The Steelers were likely to keep Cory Trice Jr. even before his injury, but they would've viewed him as an extra player on their active roster. The real competition for the fourth cornerback role was between returning veteran Pierre and XFL stud Barcoo.
Then, camp happened, a preseason game was played, and the Steelers walked away with a problem - their cornerback competition was insufficient.
Pierre finished the preseason opener with ten tackles, which is not a good stat for a cornerback. Most times, like this one, it means that player gave up a lot of completed passes.
Barcoo didn't do any better. After an impressive week of practice heading into the game, Barcoo couldn't keep up with any of Tampa Bay's wide receivers. And they didn't play any of their starters.
Madre Harper and Isaiah Dunn haven't done anything in camp to show they're in the race, which means the Steelers have one option - see who's available.
It won't happen now, but Pittsburgh will likely be monitoring the cornerback market over these final two games to see which players around the league get cut during roster trims.
And if they find a match, there's a chance they go outside the roster for their final cornerback spot. They should.
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