Daylen Everette has gone from the least-talked-about rookie to now perhaps the most discussed, the only change being seeing him. A third-round pick, the Steelers cornerback has impressed thus far through OTAs and minicamp. At least that’s the takeaway from basically every beat writer on hand, but what does it mean?
Mike DeFabo already speculated, for example, that Everette could challenge Asante Samuel Jr. as the first cornerback off the bench. Mark Kaboly offered a similar sentiment, though it’s unclear how far that extends. On 93.7 The Fan, he was asked, between Samuel and Everette, who would start the season as the third cornerback. By the end of his reply, he talked himself into the rookie, albeit on somewhat dubious grounds.
“I think they’ll start off with Asante Samuel, but he could be a guy that—he’s getting paid decent money”, Kaboly said, echoing previous comments in which he idly speculated that Samuel could be a salary cap casualty, even though it doesn’t make much sense because most of his money came as a signing bonus, which the Steelers can’t get back. I guess he didn’t read the linked article. But that doesn’t mean Daylen Everette couldn’t jump ahead of him.
“I don’t know if they would feel comfortable doing that with a veteran type of guy, but you also have some backups there that could probably fill in”, Kaboly continued, acknowledging Jalen Ramsey and Brandin Echols. “I think Everette has to continue to just get better, but I think Asante Samuel—he’s another one. I’m gonna go with Daylen Everette to start the season”.
Asante Samuel is a former second-round pick who had been a starter for his entire career until a career-threatening injury derailed him. Rehabbing into last season, he signed with the Steelers late in the process, but did see some playing time. They re-signed on a one-year, $4 million contract. But then they signed Jamel Dean to start and used a third-round pick on Daylen Everette.
Now, it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Everette passes Samuel on the depth chart. It’s also true that we’re very early on in the process. It’s one thing for a tall, athletic cornerback to look good in minicamp. How will he look, though, with pads on, and in actual games? How will he look when he has to actually run within a scheme and play with instinct and speed?
Of course, Kaboly’s response assumes a reasonable trajectory for Daylen Everette based on what he has already shown. There’s so little that anybody has seen from Everette that it’s all premature. But it’s always better to perform well enough in the spring to generate this type of hype than it is to do the opposite. And doing well now certainly doesn’t make it less likely to do well later on. The Steelers believe in their depth, and if Everette should rise up the ranks, that’s a problem they’ll gladly accept.
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