Steelers re-signing CB Witherspoon improves unsatisfactory secondary

Ahkello Witherspoon is returning to Pittsburgh. Here’s how his recent contract extension saves the Steelers otherwise deficient secondary in 2022. 

Early during the free agency legal tampering period, NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala reported that the plan was to sing cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon to a contract extension. However, after a few days went by, fans were starting to lose hope that this was actually happening.

That changed on March 17th, as Josina Anderson declared that Witherspoon was indeed signing a two-year extension to remain a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. This was later confirmed by others around the league.

While retaining a cornerback who started who was credited with just 3 starts last season doesn’t seem like a big deal, Witherspoon was much better than many fans realize, and I think they are really going to come to like this signing.

Witherspoon isn’t without his flaws. Despite his fantastic size and length (6’3” 198 lbs, 33” arms) he’s not a very physical football player and he had a very high missed-tackle rate of 28.6 percent last season. Still, I can live with this part of his game because of what he offers in the secondary.

Steelers bringing back Witherspoon was a must

Prior to this signing, the Steelers didn’t have a single cornerback on their roster with under 4.5 speed; nor did they have a guy who could stick with opposing number one receivers. They now have that in Ahkello Witherspoon.

Though I wasn’t opposed to the Levi Wallace signing (I think he’s a gritty, physical football player), Wallace lacks speed and play-making ability to be a number one cornerback in the NFL. Entering the NFL Draft with Wallace and Cameron Sutton as your outside cornerbacks with Arthur Maulet in the slot could have forced Pittsburgh to take a CB early (much like they did in 2016 when they drafted Artie Burns).

Now that Witherspoon is officially back, I like this cornerback lineup significantly better:

The Witherspoon signing ensures that the Steelers will have a cornerback with terrific size, speed, and ability to make plays on the football — bumping guys like Wallace, Sutton, and Maulet back to roles that they will be much more comfortable with and that fit their skill set.

Obviously, re-signing Ahkello Witherspoon doesn’t guarantee Pittsburgh to have a strong secondary in 2022 or that they will have more fortune when it comes to takeaways next season. But at the very least, it gives them much better depth and at least one guy they should be able to count on to be consistent in coverage.

Last year, Witherspoon allowed just a 35.1 passer-rating on throws in his direction, according to advanced statistics from Pro Football Reference. While he’s not likely to have a repeat performance of this as a full-time starter, he could still prove to be very good.

What gives me plenty of confidence is that, for two straight years now, Witherspoon has graded out as a top-13 NFL cornerback, via Pro Football Focus. As a project CB coming out of Colorado in 2017, Witherspoon has really caught on lately and blossomed into a solid football player.

The Steelers won’t necessarily stop here, and there are other moves they could still make during free agency. However, I’m just glad that they were able to bring back their best cornerback from the 2021 season. This should help their defense out a lot this year.