The WR corps and the secondary are widely viewed as two of the biggest question marks on the Pittsburgh Steelers 2025 roster. But don\u2019t tell that to Bryant McFadden. He not only views the secondary as a strength, but he thinks they are one of the best units in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have Pittsburgh, the Steelers, in my top-five secondaries for this upcoming year because when you look at the combination of experience, of playmaking ability, not to mention a youthful movement as well,\u201d McFadden said via CBS Sports HQ this afternoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many expected the team to address the position in the 2025 NFL Draft and potentially as high Day 1 or 2 of the event. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette insider Ray Fittipaldo recently stated his concerns over the secondary and wishes they would have done more to bolster the position in the offseason.<\/p>\n They waited all the way until their final pick at No. 229 overall in the seventh round to select little-known Central Michigan CB Donte Kent. Could that have been a ringing endorsement of the current group on the roster, or just the way the board broke for them with other needs of higher priority? McFadden seems to think it was an endorsement.<\/p>\n \u201cStarting with Joey Porter Jr., he\u2019s considered one of the best man-to-man corners, especially press-man corners in the game,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s really excelled from where he was his rookie year.\u201d<\/p>\n Some would probably argue he didn\u2019t take a big enough step in his second year. There is a case to be made that his rookie year was the stronger of the two. If not for the penalty issues, he actually had a pretty decent year in 2024.<\/p>\n With Porter, we\u2019ve seen him do it before when he shadowed No. 1 WRs with great success as a rookie. If he can put it together, then he can be a dominant CB1.<\/p>\n \u201cNot to mention having Darius Slay come into the fold,\u201d McFadden said. \u201cBig Play Slay is his nickname. You don\u2019t just get that nickname, you have to earn it.\u201d<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t have an interception for the Philadelphia Eagles last season for the first time since his rookie season, but he was still very solid. Does he have another year in him turning 35 during the season? If not, the Steelers have Brandin Echols and Cory Trice Jr. as two promising depth players<\/a> that can play a bigger role if needed.<\/p>\n McFadden also pointed to the duo of Minkah Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliott, calling the latter an \u201cunheralded hero\u201d of the team. Throw Beanie Bishop Jr. in there and there is a good deal of continuity for the group as well. That can\u2019t go understated as communication issues were among the biggest issues for the Steelers\u2019 secondary last year.<\/p>\n Rounding out McFadden\u2019s top five, in reverse order, are the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a big\u00a0if,\u00a0but\u00a0if\u00a0Fitzpatrick and Porter can play up to the level that they\u2019ve shown in the past, the Steelers secondary can absolutely blow away most people\u2019s expectations. They changed things up with the coaching staff moving on from Grady Brown<\/a> and bringing back Gerald Alexander to make sure that happens.<\/p>\n Will they be in the top five? That might be a stretch, but they probably aren\u2019t getting enough credit for the talent they have on the roster.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WR corps and the secondary are widely viewed as two of the biggest question marks on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19009,3244,4830,9313,3455,7,7582,7583,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-147190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-bryant-mcfadden","9":"tag-cbs-sports","10":"tag-cbs-sports-hq","11":"tag-darius-slay","12":"tag-deshon-elliott","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-joey-porter-jr","15":"tag-minkah-fitzpatrick","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114720764290819367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}