The Steelers slot cornerback job is up for grabs
If there is one position that is completely up for grabs on the team right now, it's slot cornerback. In today's NFL, '11' personnel packages are huge; thus a nickel defensive back essentially becomes a starting player.
Last year, Arthur Maulet struggled mightily in this position, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are hoping for better play out of their slot cornerback this time around. The biggest question early in training camp is: who will the slot CB be in 2023?
It's hard to say for certain. While it does appear that the Steelers will try to kick Patrick Peterson to the slot in nickel situations in an effort to get Joey Porter Jr. on the field, this lineup isn't guaranteed to work. Despite Peterson's impressive pedigree, the 33-year-old has very little experience covering the slot throughout his NFL career, and he may not have the quickness to handle this role on a full-time basis.
For this reason, the Steelers are quite literally exploring all of their options. Players like Duke Dawson and Elijah Riley have each earned plenty of first-team reps at Steelers training camp so far, and they have cycled through a number of players already. The coming weeks will be very important in not only determining which defensive backs will make the roster, but also which players the team could look to for slot coverage duties in 2023.