The Heroes and Villains of the Steelers' Season: 5 players saving the day, 5 causing mayhem

Steelers fifth worst performing player: Chandon Sullivan

The Steelers infatuation with Chandon Sullivan is weird. Signing him after the draft, the team needed another slot-capable body in the cornerback room. While many toyed with the idea of Patrick Peterson being the passing defense slot cornerback, Sullivan was further insurance in case Peterson was needed elsewhere.

Elijah Riley seemingly played better than he did in the preseason, and this team added veteran slot cornerback Desmond King after cutdowns. On paper, it seemed like Sullivan was at risk of being cut or at least being inactive on gamedays, but that hasn’t been the case so far.

Instead, Sullivan has seen the most slot work on defense so far, netting 33 percent of the defensive snaps while the other two aforementioned names have barely seen the field. It isn’t like the results have been good either. Sullivan is one of the worst-ranked corners on this team and his film against the Ravens was hard to watch.

With the bye week here, the hope should be that King has had enough time to get acclimated to this defense and can play in the slot moving forward. Sullivan certainly isn’t the issue, and while he hasn’t seen the field often, he has proven to be a liability anytime an opposing offense targets him in the passing game.