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Steelers mock draft round 4: Tay Gowan

The Steelers are still waiting to see if cornerback Justin Layne is a player who they can count on in the future, but there’s no guarantee he will be the answer they are looking for on the outside. While the team was able to retain Cameron Sutton this offseason, losing both Steven Nelson and Mike Hilton stings, and Pittsburgh needs to find a quality option in the draft.

It’s entirely possible that the team could address this need much higher than the fourth round, but with other big needs to fill, I have them waiting until the start of day three to grab their cornerback. At about 6’1” and 186 pounds, Tay Gowan is long and lean with solid athletic traits that includes a 4.47 40-yard dash, a 35.5” vertical jump, and a 6.86 3-cone.

While opting out of the 2020 season may have hurt his chances of going higher than this in the draft, there comes a point where you need to take a gamble. Gowan and Aaron Robinson made up one of the best cornerback tandems in the nation in 2019, and with Gowan’s combination of length and speed, this is a good spot to take a gamble on him. Had he played the 2020 season, he probably wouldn’t be available to Pittsburgh at this point. At the very worst, he will be able to come in and compete with Justin Layne and James Pierre for duties as the team’s third cornerback in 2021. The Steelers would be banking on one of these three to fill the void.