The Pittsburgh Steelers added insurance to most of the team's biggest positional needs in free agency. No position was impacted more than cornerback. Though James Pierre departed in free agency for the Minnesota Vikings after an exceptional season, the Steelers retained Asante Samuel Jr. while spending big to acquire veteran Jamel Dean.
The outside CB pairing of Dean and Joey Porter Jr. could make a potentially lethal tandem in press-man coverage, while Samuel is another year removed from spinal fusion surgery after joining the Steelers in the second half of the 2025 season.
But cornerback could be a sneaky need for Pittsburgh.
On Monday, Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report wrote about one surprise need each NFL team could address in the 2026 NFL Draft. For Pittsburgh, this was the cornerback position.
"As good as Dean has been, he is going to turn 30 in October, and the structure of the contract allows the Steelers to cut him to clear $8 million in cap space next offseason. That's not really a three-year commitment by NFL bookkeeping standards," Ballentine wrote.
Ballentine continued that Jalen Ramsey made the move from cornerback to safety last year and that Samuel and Cory Trice Jr. can't be counted on, considering their injury histories. Both players will have expiring contracts after the 2026 season.
This could potentially leave the Steelers with just Porter and a 30-year-old Dean at the position by the start of the 2027 offseason.
The Pittsburgh Steelers could address cornerback earlier than expected in the 2026 NFL Draft
With 12 selections at their disposal, it's hardly a bold or surprising take to assume the Pittsburgh Steelers will select a cornerback somewhere in the NFL Draft this year. Heck, even taking a pair of CBs isn't out of the question.
However, B/R suggests the Steelers could dip their toes into the cornerback pool early.
Ballentine believes South Carolina's Brandon Cisse is a potential option, citing co-worker Daniel Harms' scouting report in his article.
"Brandon Cisse has exceptional lateral and downhill explosion that he uses to trigger on perimeter runs/screens and maintain sticky man coverage. The willingness and physicality to jam in press coverage give him multiple tools to be a menace as a boundary corner," Daniel Harms wrote in his scouting report for B/R.
Cisse, a 20-year-old cornerback with solid size and explosive athletic traits, is often projected as a late-first-round pick. If he falls to Day 2, the South Carolina product won't make it long in the second round before hearing his name called.
This suggests the Steelers could take a cornerback as early as the first round. While not impossible, this feels highly unlikely.
With the addition of Dean, Pittsburgh's boundary cornerbacks are already set for the 2026 season (and probably the 2027 season as well). This means that taking another boundary CB only to have him play in a part-time role early in his career wouldn't make much sense.
Based on Pittsburgh's pre-draft interests, it seems likely that a cornerback could come on Day 2. But their 30 visit with San Diego State's Chris Johnson hints CB is still an option in Round 1. Johnson has been gaining a ton of steam throughout the pre-draft process. Like Cisse, he is a similar size and has athletic traits, but his 2025 film could vault him into the first round.
We can assume the Pittsburgh Steelers will go after a wide receiver or an offensive lineman with their top draft pick this year, but we can't say that for sure, and it's been harder than ever to follow the trail of breadcrumbs to their selection in Round 1.
This team will take a cornerback at some point in the draft, and we can't rule out a shocking move for a CB in the first round.