SteelerWatch

Head coach Mike Tomlin recently poured out his corner-lovin’ heart about highly paid 2006 underachiever Ike Taylor, who late last season became former coach Bill Cowher’s whipping boy. Used largely as the scapegoat for a defense the underperformed as a whole — in fact, it could be argued that the secondary was actually the best part of the entire unit — Taylor was benched for the final few games last season, making way for Bryant McFadden, who will likely bump fellow cornerback Deshea Townsend from the starting lineup.

The story here isn’t Tomlin’s admiration of the still-capable prospect; Tomlin was a secondary coach in Tampa Bay and defensive coordinator in Minnesota last season, so he knows a thing or two about coaching cornerbacks. And we all know that, while Taylor had a bad season last year and has even been derided here on SteelerWatch for his lack of quality play in 2006, he’s more than capable of shutting down the best receivers in the league and has the afterburners to roll with the fastest guys in the league — should he actually choose to use that speed.

No, the story here is that Tomlin’s show of affection essentially rules out the cornerback position for a draft on day one. SteelerWatch’s favorite player in the draft is Darrelle Revis, inarguably the most exciting defensive player to watch last year. While there are more pressing needs than cornerback in Pittsburgh, I certainly hate to concede that they will have to skip over Revis, and that such a talent could fall into the hands of a potential opponent. Possibly even the New England Patriots, who have two picks in the first round and could use someone to play beside or behind current franchise player Asante Samuel.

Now I’m seriously bummed out.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 7:10 am and is filed under My Opinion, Defense, Coaches, Draft Coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.