3 reasons Justin Layne has been a draft bust for Steelers

He isn’t the next man up

This is the worst scenario for Layne, as the Steelers are lauded for their next man up mentality, and Layne isn’t that. Sure, he has seen defensive snaps for starters when they went down with injuries, but the team has opted to play other players ahead of him more often than not. The first case of this was week 10 against the Bengals.

With Mike Hilton injured, Cameron Sutton became the primary slot corner for the defense. This opened up his dime spot for Layne to take over, something he had done sparingly over the past few weeks. Instead, the Steelers turned to rookie safety Antoine Brooks for that role, allowing him to play almost half of the defensive snaps. In turn, Layne only played five total snaps on defense that week.

Even worse, the past two weeks have shown the Steelers trying to keep Layne off the field when both Nelson and Haden missing games with injuries. In both games, Sutton got the starting nod despite being more of a slot corner for most of his Steelers career. Instead of giving Layne, the corner you drafted with the intention of developing him on the outside, the shot to start, they opted to protect him twice. That is an indictment of where the team sees him currently as a player.

While Sutton is a fantastic player and has proved it in the games he has started, the fact that the Steelers are so against giving him the start doesn’t bode well for his future as a starter. Even more so, after Haden left the week 13 game against the Football Team, Layne was bad as a coverage player. He allowed all four of his targets to be caught and gave up a score. The Steelers know what they have with him at this point, and unless he makes a huge jump next year, the team may give up on his defensive potential.

All said, Layne has been a disappointment this season for the Steelers, and his status as a third-round pick is making him a potential bust from an otherwise solid draft class. The team will need to show that they have confidence in him as the next man up, let alone as a potential starter down the road. If the early signs are any inclination though, Layne appears to be a bust for the Steelers.