By Bryan Deardo
March 12, 2019
(Kansas City Star)
Steven Nelson, a cornerback for the Kansas City Chiefs since the start of the 2015 season, will sign a three-year, $25.5 million deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers when the new league year officially begins Wednesday at 4 p.m, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport has reported.
Nelson, 26, joined the Chiefs as a third round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft out of Oregon State. He played in 12 games as a rookie, mostly on special teams, and totaled eight tackles. His role increased in 2016 when he started 15 games and totaled 65 tackles and 16 passes defensed, but he was limited to nine games in 2017 due to a core muscle injury that landed him on injured reserve to start the season. Nelson had the most productive season of his NFL career in 2018, totaling 68 tackles, four interceptions, and 15 passes defensed.
The Chiefs were expected to move on from Nelson, primarily due to his expected price tag. The loss of Nelson leaves the Chiefs shorthanded for the time being at cornerback, with Kendall Fuller, Charvarius Ward, Tremon Smith, and Dontae Johnson being the primary candidates currently under contract for 2019. The Chiefs are likely to be active in adding help to the cornerback position in the draft as well as over the remainder of free agency.
There were several reasons why the Pittsburgh Steelers finished 9-6-1 and out of the AFC playoff picture in 2018. One of the issues was an inability to force turnovers, as Pittsburgh finished 28th in the NFL with a minus 11 turnover ratio last season. While Pittsburgh's offensive committed 26 turnovers, their defense forced just 15 turnovers, tied for the third fewest in the NFL last season. By comparison, the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots, the two teams that won their respected conferences last season, were fourth and fifth in the NFL respectively with plus 11 and plus 10 turnover ratios. The two teams also combined to force 58 turnovers during the 2018 regular season.
Steelers' GM Kevin Colbert acknowledged that his defensive unit has to force more turnovers in 2019 while adding that Pittsburgh will look to add more playmakers to their defense this offseason.
"Defensively, again there's a little inconsistency," Colbert said during last month's NFL combine. "We led the league or were second in sacks, but our turnover production was near the bottom. Usually when you're getting pressure, you're getting more turnovers. We think that's reflective of the group that we have. That's not to say we don't have guys that are capable of making plays in the secondary, but we didn't have that type of production. So, again, we're looking to maintain the pressure aspect and improve the turnover part of it. Again, another young player who stepped up in his second year was T.J. Watt. He did a nice job. Continues to grow, but we need more young playmakers, especially on the back end. The young kids that we have need to continue to get better and make more plays, and we have to continue to search and look for more playmakers."
For the seventh consecutive year, the Steelers are expected to spend their first round pick -- the 20th overall pick in the draft -- on the defensive side of the ball. One player Pittsburgh will certainly look into selecting is LSU cornerback Greedy Williams, who picked off eight passes during his final two seasons with the Tigers. Overall, Colbert likes the depth at the cornerback and safety positions in this year's draft.
"Defensively, there are significant numbers in the secondary, both at safety and corner, and at the linebacker, both inside and outside," Colbert said. "Interior offensive line, it's never really deep. Interior defensive line, it's usually never deep. There's just not that many players in those positions."
Colbert also said that, considering the fact that the Steelers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013, Pittsburgh didn't do an adequate enough job replacing Ryan Shazier, who missed the entire 2018 season after undergoing spine stabilization surgery in December of 2017. The Steelers replaced Shazier with L.J. Fort and free agent signee Jon Bostic, who recorded 73 tackles and 2.5 sacks last season.
"Ryan Shazier was a significant football player, not only from a physical standpoint but from a mental standpoint," Colbert said. "Ryan Shazier never came off the field. When you get into dime packages, Ryan's still out there making all the calls. Sometimes you have to put a player out there who can understand and make the calls but they may have a physical limitation. Teams are great at finding weaknesses. That's what coaches get paid for, so sometimes people get caught in situations where they might be deficient.
"When Ryan was a rookie, people would run at him because he was a 225-pound guy. But we needed him out there because his coverage and range made up for that one deficiency. So, no, we didn't do enough. We're 9-6-1 and we're not going to hide from that. But we're going to recognize that as we go forward, for sure. We have more than one position that we want to continue to look at and upgrade. There may be players that are available to us that we don't need that are going to uprgrade us, who make us that much better that that deficiency may be overcome."
While the Steelers will look to add playmakers to their defense, Colbert also said that he wants to continue to see more progress from the players currently on the roster. One of those players is fourth year cornerback and former first round pick Artie Burns, who lost his starting job during the 2018 season.
"Artie's got to find his confidence," Colbert said. "He really does, and that's something we talked to him about and he has to re-find it. Does he have the talent? Have we seen it? Have we seen him be productive? We have. But unfortunately last year he took a step back and we'll find out if he can find it. Is that going to stop us from challenging his position with other players? Absolutely not, because he has to prove he can do it."
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