The Pittsburgh Steelers have made a splash in free agency, but with big names still available, they could continue looking at this player.
With Justin Houston signing to the Indianapolis Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers are finishing free agency with backup options in a number of positions. As the NFL Draft approaches, they’ll focus on filling minor needs with players left on the open market.
If you’re going to look into the free agent market to fill Pittsburgh’s needs the corner position always comes up in conversation. The first name that comes to mind, for me at least, would be former Jet, Morris Claiborne. He may not get a lot of interceptions and give our offense the ball back, but he always has a solid year in tackling last year his 44 tackles was still in the top five of the team.
Having Joe Haden on one side when completely healthy you need that other defensive back so teams with more than one threat won’t just move there star receiver around to keep them away from Haden’s side of the field. Claiborne’s 44 tackles was actually higher than Haden’s first year in Pittsburgh.
That is, what most would say, is a big weak spot in Pittsburgh’s defense and has been for some years now. So, this year will be the time to step up make some moves and change that. Signing Claiborne should not even come at a huge cost or salary cap hit.
So, if we take a look back at the 2018 season how many games was lost in last minute drives on a tired Steelers defense. The addition of someone like Claiborne could be the difference in 9-6 and on the outside looking in and 11-4 sitting pretty with good odds.
There is many more talented players out there in the 2019 free agency. So if the Steelers could at least land on of these big name players they will be able to jump in and help a mostly young Steelers defense in the late minutes of big playoff potential games.