The Pittsburgh Steelers recently signed a starting cornerback in free agency. Here’s what we can expect from Levi Wallace in 2022 and beyond.
It’s been an eventful offseason so far for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After Kevin Colbert managed to sign players like QB Mitchell Trubisky and OG Mason Cole, the front office made my favorite move of 2022 to date — adding a very good, young guard in James Daniels.
In terms of name and reputation, Myles Jack was the player most fans went crazy over. However, there was another move that seemed to have resonated well with fans: signing former Buffalo Bills starting cornerback, Levi Wallace.
Wallace was a former undrafted player coming out of college back in 2018, so he has already defied the odds. However, it’s even more spectacular when you consider that he has started every NFL game he has been healthy for over the first four seasons of his career.
This experience certainly goes a long way. The Steelers can take comfort in the fact that he is still just 26 years old, but has already started 52 games for a very good football program.
In addition to his playing experience, Pittsburgh no doubt targeted Wallace thanks to his physicality and tackling ability — something that goes a long way with Mike Tomlin and the coaching staff. Wallace had a missed-tackle rate of just 5.9 percent and 10.8 percent over the past two seasons, according to Pro Football Reference. In comparison, Joe Haden missed 17.4 percent of his tackles, and Ahkello Witherspoon missed on a whopping 28.6 percent.
Wallace also has been very consistent in coverage and doesn’t often allow big plays in his coverage. As a result, he has never surrendered a passer rating higher than 85.5 in his NFL career, via PFR:
#Steelers new CB Levi Wallace passer rating allowed each year, via @pfref:
— Tommy Jaggi (@TommyJaggi) March 17, 2022
2018: 76.3
2019: 85.5
2020: 85.3
2021: 72.6
Sadly, Levi Wallace is not without his shortcomings. While he certainly play the game with an extra dose of physicality and is a reliable tackler, he’s not much of a playmaker. In four years as a starter, Wallace has never earned more than 2 interceptions 10 pass defenses in a single season.
In addition, Wallace is not a great athlete, by NFL standards. The former Alabama product ran just a 4.63 40-yard dash coming out of college and paired that with an unspectacular 33” vertical jump. This lack of speed and explosion often shows up on tape. He’s a good ‘assignment’ guy but doesn’t have a lot of makeup speed or ability to recover after a false step.
What are the Steelers getting in Wallace?
Having said this, the Steelers are getting a solid, yet unspectacular football player at a very reasonable price (2 years, $8 million). Wallace isn’t a ‘splash’ player and he’s probably never going to be a guy who can take the ball away 5-6 times throughout the course of the season.
Likewise, Wallace shouldn’t be considered the team’s CB1. If he is, we’ve got some bigger issues at hand. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t be a very capable CB2 who can be a steady presence on their defense with his sound technique and plus physicality. This is the role I project him in for the Steelers.
If all goes well, Wallace would be the team’s number two cornerback with Cameron Sutton moving back to Nickel duties (the place that is best for his skillset). If Pittsburgh is able to bring back Ahkello Witherspoon, then I really would not mind this group of corners heading into the 2022 season.
Much like when we lost Mike Hilton, many Bills fans were sad to see Levi Wallace leave. He’s a hard worker with great physicality. Just don’t expect a ton of splash from him during his tenure in Pittsburgh.