In Darius Slay, the Pittsburgh Steelers thought they were getting a reliable corner who could help lock things down alongside Jalen Ramsey and Joey Porter Jr. Unfortunately, his play hasn’t lived up to that standard.
Neither has his health. Slay has found himself out of action at points in nearly every game so far this year. He suffered a concussion against Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, and that led to him missing the Steelers’ win over the Bengals last week. In his place, James Pierre played very well, making a strong argument to keep the starting role with Slay healthy. Speaking this week, Mike Tomlin didn’t seem excited about that idea. But even if Slay does start, Steelers insider Brian Batko isn’t expecting him to get a lot of grace.
“I think he’ll [Slay] start. I’ll take Tomlin at face value on that. But I wouldn’t put it past him to rotate him [Slay] and Pierre,” Batko said Wednesday on 93.7 The Fan. “I think Pierre has played so well, and Slay has played so poorly that he’s gotta have a very short rope if he gets in there. First sign of trouble, go with Pierre. But I was kind of surprised that Tomlin was as committal as he was yesterday on the Slay stuff.”
Just looking at the numbers, Pierre has been significantly better, although his sample size is much smaller. Pierre now has eight passes defended, which is very impressive since he’s only been targeted 23 times. He’s allowed just 10 completions for 79 yards, and quarterbacks have a rating of 52.6 when passing in his direction. Meanwhile, Slay is allowing a completion rate of 75-percent and a passer rating of 108.0 when targeted.
The difference between the first matchup against the Bengals with Slay and the second matchup with Pierre was telling. Of course, Pierre isn’t the only reason the entire secondary rose to the occasion. But he held his own in man coverage against both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. That’s something Slay wasn’t able to do, even against Andrei Iosivas back in Cincinnati.
Slay was a full participant at Wednesday’s practice, which is almost always a sign that a player will be able to play come Sunday. If he does, Tomlin’s words do make it seem as if he’ll get the start.
However, it’s going to be hard to keep somebody playing as well as Pierre is on the sideline. And already earlier this season, the Steelers reduced some of Darius Slay’s workload, giving Brandin Echols snaps in his place. If there’s an early mistake or two from Slay, it won’t be much of a surprise to see the Steelers pivot to Pierre.
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