The New Frontier: Why Justin Gilbert's Arrival Will Solidly Pittsburgh's Secondary

Hello fellow members of TSF. AskQuestionsLater here bringing you an in depth analysis of the current transformation Pittsburgh's secondary has been taking shape over the last two years. A lot has happened since the end of the 2015 preseason and Justin Gilbert's acquisition cements Pittsburgh's foray into a new age. With that.. let us get started.




Going into the closing of the 2015 preseason.. there was a high level of paranoia among local based media and fans; clouding the fact that Pittsburghs offense was in ascension and the pass rush was easily better than it was a year ago. However.. much of that paranoia had to do with Senquez Golson and his torn labrum which made him unavailable into his rookie season. The most frustrating aspect was the lack of a tall long corner that Pittsburgh had so lacked since the days of Ike Taylor. Pittsburgh was in search for an answer...



... Enter Ross Cockrell.



He may have not had the length aspect (29 7/8 inch arms are a bit unusual to me given his height) but his height was exactly what Pittsburgh was looking. However.. outside of his height and athletic traits (4.5 speed, 122 inch. board jump + 36.5 vertical; all good scores) his wild card was his skillset; zone based boundary corner. Again, while Pittsburgh was moving in a different direction after the retirement of "Swaggin".. their entire defense was as well. No longer the days of the base 3-4 defense were to be seen as 11 and 12 personnel sets were the new enemy of the Steelers. As such, countermeasures to defend against such offenses required new manpower.. and by 2015.. the backend was due a new breed of corner cat; a corner that can easily maintain the depth of their zone assignments and have the ability to combat against the bigger possession receiving threats in the game. As such, Cockrell checked off every box and Tomlin now had an unofficial building block on what he wants in his corners; Keith Butler doubly so.



Well over 600 snaps and improvement over the year.. Ross became a local sensation; even garnering praise from Pro Football Focus as one of the best corners of the season. Tomlin's and Butler's gamble payed off big time and one of their main concerns now had a more broad weakness. Given the front seven Tomlin has developed, coupled with Butler's Eagle based Nickel scheme.. all thst remained was another find like Cockrell.. and fortunatley.. fate had yielded it's reward with one of the deepest corner classes in the 2016 draft. Leading up to the draft... I was under the impression that William Jackson III was the guy. Had exceptional production at Houston and checked out all the boxes athelitcally... or so I thought. His arms measured in at 31 3/4 inch and his weight was rail thin at 189lbs. Even so... I thought he could still be a solid boundary corner. As draft day came on April 28th... I was expecting William Jackson III and if not Myles Jack due to he and Shazier could form a duo reminiscent of Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman. Instead.. I heard of a name I thought I would hear at in round 2...


.. Artie Burns..



Granted.. I should have known given Tomlins infatuation with HWS (Height-Weight-Speed) guys.. but for someone like Burns, who is more raw than even Bud Dupree was coming out of college... I had my doubts. He was a world class athelte... so to say he did not possess the intangibles would have been ludicrous to the point of absolute ignorance. One thing I did notice was his tape. Some plays.. when he is zeroed in... there really were few better in the draft.. but these moments were so far off that I was more intrigued than disappointed as to why this was happening (more on this later). Either way... considered me shocked on whom the Steelers picked.. and so I continued to watch the draft for the remainder of the weekend.


Flash forward to today and Pittsburgh is facing yet another crisis...and again at the indirect hands of the player who orchestrated the whole endeavor to begin with in Senquez Golson. In addition .. Doran Grant's lack of development and Artie's stymied preseason debut once again provided Tomlin with a decision. However... his resolution did not come from waiver wire pickups, but rather the most infrequent of places, a division rival; the Cleveland Browns no less. The player?



Justin Gilbert.



My reaction?






A former top 10 pick for essentially little to nothing? A former top 10 pick from a team that does not know success even after their rebirth? A former top 10 pick who can strengthen the Steelers weakness and make it a strength? Again... my mood..









Burns might not be ready now... and nor is Gilbert for that matter due to him learning a new system.. but the possibilities are now boundless for the Steelers. Cleveland's organization was the direct and indirect result of Gilbert's decline; the ultimate antipodean of what he was accustomed to. Moving from a nihilistic and dreadful organization to a no nonsense success driven one is exactly the key intangible Gilbert needs. What is that intangilbe? Leadership. Gilbert needed serious circumventing from his apathy and Pittsburgh has provided him with that with a bevy of people and coaches who will expect nothing less but excellence. Should.. no.. when Gilbert starts to get comfortable in Pittsburgh's scheme and buys into what Tomlin and Butler are selling... watch out. Gilbert's Arrival could spark a similar sequence thst Pittsburgh saw with Ross Cockrell one year eariler.



However... we are not entirely finished yet. Notice how all three of these cornerbacks bring the required skills and traits for what Pittsburgh is now looking for within its secondary. One more key element intertwines Ross, Artie, and Justin and it has no direct relation with football but is based more on a psychological scale, and ironically enough, can portray them all within this phenomenon.. an unusual experience known as Beck's Cognitive Triad. A diagram is shown below:






Now.. recall about how I said all three can fit into one category? Here are their locations.


Ross Cockrell = Negative Views About The World (His World): After being drafted so high in 2014.. was let go for Ronald Darby and never got to prove himself.


Artie Burns = Negative Views About The Future: Lost his mother in college and had to play under a coach who could not assemble a game plan correctly; much less developing a team.


Justin Gilbert = Negative Views About Oneself: Lost all confidence he had after being in Cleveland, resulting in apathy from everything football based.



Again... ths is not just coincidence. These three have had to deal with some sort of negativity throughout their young lives and have never been to an organization that can help them attain their maximum. Pittsburgh is that organization. Now that they know it, the new frontier can be discovered.

 

Nice read, I share your optimism

 

Our you related to Mike Tomlin?

 

Nope. Just a guy who loves to write about topics that pique my interest.

 

I don't really like Ross , but the other 2 I think can play ..I also agree with the HWS approach ..If you have a good staff and you have good talent that is willing to receive coaching then you can turn those HWS guys into players..Coaching never stops not from any level to the next level the Teams with the best coaching will always be on top...

 

I personally think our secondary will gel this year, and be darn good next year. Our D line(if healthy) will be beastly. Our ILB will be a force, but our weak link will be OLB pass rush. Overall our D is going to be good, like top 5 good soon. oh yeah, if the damn snake will stop biting that is.

 

If it all works out for all the CB's currently roster, including Senquez, our CB group should be solid for years to come... big emphasis on "IF" though. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Honestly I'm not concerned about our CB's. I'd rather they focus on improving the safeties and pass rush.

 

i think cockrell did some very good things for us last year. he showed his smarts for one thing being thrown in without any training camp. he is working on his strength for the 2nd thing which shows he willing to put forth the work to get where he needs to be. he will give the effort we expect here and has a good attitude. we can't ask for much more from a player. i think he was a great pickup for us.

 

I'm high on Cockrell too, I think he played very well last year. I heard he has hit the weights this offseason and he is a lot more physical now. It should help him greatly this year.

 

Lot of IFs... but if Gilbert shows some signs of why he was a top pick, if Burns shows he can contribute, if RC is better, if Gay doesn't look old, if Golson contributes in the 2nd half... I mean, if COULD be a good set of CBs. I'm not convinced but I'm far more hopeful than I have been the last few years...

 

High on Cockrell? What? Apparently we have short memory loss here. We had the worst pass defense in steelers history in 2015. Cockrell was a target . The only reason he started was because we had no one else. Blake was our alternative to Cockrell.

In case you forgot what happened last season... I'll remind you: after watching our secondary get burned on a regular basis EVERY steeler fan was asking why the heck isn't Boykin playing? For most of the season we watched Cockrell and Blake get beaten like a drum. Which is why our pass defense ranked 30th in the league.

I'm actually hopeful this season for 2 reasons. #1 - I think our front 7 will be better = more QB pressure. #2 We can't possibly be any worse than last season. (can we?)

 

BTW - this love fest with the fact that Gilbert was a high pick is kind of silly. I don't think he stunk because he was a Brown. I think he stunk because the Browns don't know how to draft. It's been many years since any of their 1st round picks were any good...and none of them went on to another team and excelled. So you can't say they stunk because they played for the browns. They stunk becuase the browns were 100% wrong on his evaluation.

Gilbert was out played by hacks in the Browns secondary from his first training camp. He didn't show up to Cleveland, look awesome, than suddenly faded away because he was on a horribly coached team. He was out played by every corner on their team. The video evidence proves Gilbert has been nothing short of terrible on defense. His technique is a joke. His amazing speed doesn't show up on game day... he was beaten regularly by slow WR's. It's his 3rd season? And so far this pre season he was just as horrible as always. So I get why the Browns basically cut him. He sucks. Oh and he also happens to be a head case and poison to a locker room.

He does look good on special teams so he's worthy of a roster spot in Pittsburgh... which also says something about just how bad our corners are. I hope something clicks with this guy. I really do. But I think it's wishful thinking. He's young enough..so maybe he will get his head on right... but even that he still needs to learn our defense and proper technique. That's at least a year of work if not 2....even for the most talented rookies.

 

Blake I can not excuse but yes definitely high on Cockrell. He plays well. There were many a many times where I blamed so burnage of last season on the safeties being out of position. There isnt a team with corners so good that you dont need safeties behind them, and our safety play sucked as much as the cb play.

 

MEGO. Have a link for the Cliff Notes?

 

Blake was playing with only one arm out there, he was injured.

Also our pass rush was terrible last year. If we had two great pass rushers on the outside, we can easily win with these guys.

Both Blake and Cockerel were probably the first CB's on the steelers in a long time to actually pick off passes as well.

 

It's got to be better than 30th rank in the league pass defense we had last year right. Odds are we are going up!

 

What? 48 sacks 3rd in the NFL. Our pass rush was not a problem last year. It was done as a unit not just 2 players.

 

We HAVE to hope that Gilbert finds his game. You are right, the secondary was HORRIBLE last year. We need him to find himself and become the player who was drafted at #8.

I do think you are overstating the case by blaming their inability to draft as to why he stunk on the Browns. The Browns have exactly 0 of the 6 picks in the first round over the last 4 years on their team. How do you get it THAT mixed up? Or maybe they just have no clue what to do with the guys once they get them that they really screw the player up. Personally, I don't think their player evaluation is that bad. Their strategy and development have been that bad. To me, it isn't the players, but the development and plan which is bad.

The Steelers had this guy rated high as well. So did they have it wrong as well? I guess you could say we have no idea how to draft DBs, which could be right, but I think the Browns just screw the pooch on every first round pick they get. We must hope that Gilbert figures it out, cause if he becomes the player that was picked at #8 overall, between him and Burns, assuming he reaches his potential as well, coupled with Golson, Gay and Cockrell...the CB position could be much much better than last year. Personally, I would be pretty happy with around 15-20 this year. It is a major step in the development.

 

Bud Dupree 4 sacks and James Harrison 5 sacks? Thats not getting it done.

Also Coach Butz had to manufacture a lot of sacks with exotic DB blitzes.

It needs to be better from the outside rushers.

 

I just want to say yes we were 3rd in sacks, but very situational. We need to be better on 3rd downs. This was the common theme, 1st down we stop the run. 2nd down we get a sack. it's 3rd and 15 and then we allow a first. Rinse and repeat and we usually A. hold them to a fg, or B. get a turnover. If we can't get a turnover or pressure the qb then it looks ugly-seattle game.

 

Our pass defense was putrid in the beginning of the season when our guys just sat back and let everything be caught in front of them.....when we suddenly allowed our guys to be more aggressive and play tougher man to man we actually looked quite respectable. I like what Cockrell brings to the table especially his smarts. I remember quite a few heads up plays he made or nearly made....we could use a couple more cerebral players....