{"id":188649,"date":"2025-07-07T16:04:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/188649\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T16:04:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:04:22","slug":"former-nfl-lb-says-steelers-have-two-lockdown-corners-in-darius-slay-jalen-ramsey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/188649\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL LB Says Steelers Have Two ‘Lockdown’ Corners In Darius Slay, Jalen Ramsey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moving on from Minkah Fitzpatrick and adding Jalen Ramsey, the Pittsburgh Steelers shook their defense up in a major way last week. While there are questions as to which role Ramsey will hold in the secondary, he can still play the cornerback position well. So well, that former NFL LB Manti Te\u2019o believes the Steelers have one of the best cornerback tandems in the league with Ramsey and Darius Slay.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a lot of youth there, now you make that trade, not only for Jalen Ramsey, but you have Darius Slay, who just won the Super Bowl. So you have two, some of the most dynamic, most lockdown corners in the NFL\u2026 You have so many stalwart defensive players that look like the traditional steel curtain that we used to see for the Pittsburgh Steelers,\u201d Te\u2019o said on NFL Network\u2019s Good Morning Football<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

Darius Slay was acquired much earlier in the offseason than Ramsey. The two fill out a cornerback room that looks to be much improved. Last year, the Steelers had Joey Porter Jr. as their first corner. Porter had a solid year, but there were some growing pains<\/a>. Aside from a nice rookie season from Beanie Bishop Jr. there just wasn\u2019t a ton of consistency at the position.<\/p>\n

Now, the unit has more starting-caliber names than enough spots to put them all in. Ramsey comes in still playing at a high level. So is Darius Slay, who allowed just an 81.9 passer rating when targeted last year. With Ramsey being able to play nickel corner, Pittsburgh can roll with him on the inside and Porter and Slay on the outside.<\/p>\n

Or, as many have pondered<\/a> since the trade became official, Ramsey could move to safety. There are a few reasons why that might make sense. First, he\u2019s going to turn 31 this year. While he can still play the position well, many corners attempt to move to safety late in their careers to extend their lifespan. Second, that might actually be his best fit on the defense.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, the safety spot got weaker with Fitzpatrick leaving. DeShon Elliott played some excellent football last year, but Juan Thornhill is a little more of a question mark. Because of that, Ramsey could see more time back there. That would also allow Bishop to get more reps at nickel corner.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh could roll with Joey Porter, Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay at corner, with Juan Thornhill and DeShon Elliott at safety. That would give them the lockdown tandem Te\u2019o is so excited about. Or, they could have Elliott and Ramsey at safety, with Porter, Slay and Bishop at corner.<\/p>\n

Injuries and potential poor play will all have an impact on how that rotation works out. But it\u2019s a good problem to have. Losing Fitzpatrick is hard. Yet, there are a lot of different ways the Steelers can utilize their talent in the secondary now. We\u2019ll see if they find the right way to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moving on from Minkah Fitzpatrick and adding Jalen Ramsey, the Pittsburgh Steelers shook their defense up in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[9313,7,5965,1815,33047,6,126,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-188649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-darius-slay","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-good-morning-football","11":"tag-jalen-ramsey","12":"tag-manti-teo","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-network","15":"tag-pittsburgh","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","17":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","18":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114812804457334433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188649","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=188649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}