Artie Burns

I have to admit. When draft season first began earlier this year, I had an idea of whom Artie was; height-weight-speed specimen who had limitless potential. Within the same token though, I had figured that Pittsburgh would elect to go with the more polished option in William Jackson III from Houston given the fact that Artie was both a world class hurdling phenom and football player. Once Pittsburgh made that pick, I was taken back a bit but not surprised given Tomlins history of drafting such players.



Fast forward to today and Artie is, in my opinion, either the best rookie cornerback or second best cornerback of his draft class depending on criteria; best in terms of pass coverage and second best overall to Jalen Ramsey; someone I compared him towards more favorably than William himself. We all knew he had the athletic abilities. How long it would take was the question.



Now that the game has slowed down for him, I wanted to see if games like Cleveland and Indianapolis were just due to the competition and find out if he was ready for the likes of Odell Beckham Jr. He was.



That all being said, I can say that, Sunday still will not be easy given the uncertainty of Javon and whether or not Sammy Watkins will play. Even if he does, my fears were already put to rest against Odell and I am confident that Artie can do it again against him or Justin Hunter.





With that out of the way, what are your thoughts on Artie? Do you believe that what scouts told or hinted to Mike Mayock of NFL.com will come to fruition ("others believe he will be the best corner from this draft)? Do you think he has gotten lucky? Can he be as good as the likes of Patrick Peterson or Richard Sherman in due time?

 

Artie has been the surprise of the season for me. It's obvious that the coaching staff have a great deal of faith in him to stick him on beckham. Finally, we have a corner!

 

He was one of the few CBs I didn't look at a lot pre-draft. So the pick was a surprise to me. The team did a great job overall in picking him and I'm glad he is doing so well. He's definitely trending upward and I have no complaints. First 3 picks were awesome and Big Red is a great pick as well. Too bad Hawkins went on IR, but its shaping up to be a great draft class.

 

Too bad the Bengals took our pick just to spite us.

 

Indeed. I am just glad though that Artie is healthy. To truly find out how these two compare will take some time for sure given the fact that WJ III is out.

 

The Bengals didn't draft William Jackson to spite the Steelers, where do fans come up with this nonsense. They wanted one of the top WRs in the first round, they were all gone by the time Bengals drafted.

 

I'm a big fan of Artie's. He plays with speed, physicality, and brains. I thought I preferred the more polished option at the time because I thought Artie would be a bigger project than he's proven to be. I'm glad he's progressing quicker than I thought. We might've gotten ourselves a future #1

 

Perhaps the green font would have helped

 

Imo he's the next Boykin.

Jk he's between Antwon Blake and Deion sanders

 

Same here. He looked almost disinterested in tackling early in the season, which scared the crap out of me, but he's been much more aggressive lately.

 

Not to mention the secondary stunk anyways so there was really nothing to lose by having him play. He early introduction will have him in a good place for next year. I guess CL saw something he like and felt he was ready.. He is really showing his worth. The game may in fact be slowing down for him now and he is settling in.

 

His tacking in the run game still stands to improve greatly. But he has looked much better tacking WR's in space.

The defining moment for him was in the Patr*ot game when he had to tackle Gronk on that deep route.Your could see his body language say "Oh man.. not this guy!"

Since then he's looked more confident.

 

I wanted Artie Burns all along, matter of fact I was willing and talking of making a deal
during draft process to secure him. Raiders ruined my draft party when they selected Joseph from WVU
and I figured Artie to be their second pick. He has a ways to go, but he is getting there.

 

As I have stated before, Burns will be the next great corner, not only for the Steelers, but the league in general...

 

Mark it down now... He WILL be the difference in the Ratbird Game.. It will definitely be tough for Bell to get yards to the ground running.. Burns will be a shut down corner by his 3rd year!

 

Eli Apple is the only other rookie CB playing as well as Burns. Good pick Colbert/Tomlin.

 

I'll be happy if Burns turns out to be as good as Ike Taylor. I don't think he'll end up "Rod Woodson" caliber... but who is?

 

I think Apple is playing well, still learning like artie...

 

i'd like to see a more aggressive corner like burns on the other side too. not to mention another safety like davis on the back end. time will tell if gilbert or golson can be an addition to what we have.

 

I said before the season started that the defense would keep getting better and that Burns's development was the key. I thought the Steelers would lose the regular season game vs the Pats and then have the potential to beat them in January, mostly because the D would be much improved. We shall see. I am not all that confident that the Steelers can go into Foxboro and win that game, especially if Ben makes bone-headed throws like he did on Sunday. But that's a different matter.

To Artie Burns...here here!!!

 

TBH pats are not as scary as former years, especially without gronk

 

I remember your post stating that 12to88