The newest Steeler, cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon arrived in Pittsburgh with a modest yet, at the same time, lofty goal saying he is looking forward to "just contributing to help this team win a championship." That, of course, is pretty much what you'd expect him to say.
The question is – how soon can Witherspoon start making that contribution? You know, like will he have a prominent role in Sunday's opener at Buffalo with barely a week under his belt?
Not even Mike Tomlin knows for sure, but he does have an idea. "We're going to determine that," the coach said at his weekly news conference. "I think the quality of his work over the next several days will determine that. It's reasonable to expect him to learn it. We've seen that, particularly at that position, in recent years."
Tomlin then cited two examples, the first at least somewhat alarming. "Ross Cockrell was able to come in here a number of years ago and be ready in a week's preparation," Tomlin said initially, but then apparently realized that maybe he had better come up with a more appetizing comparison.
"Joe Haden, I think, met us in Carolina and essentially had a week's preparation," he continued, "so particularly from a veteran's standpoint a guy that's been in some systems and been around some NFL football it's not unreasonable to expect those guys to be ready from an assignment standpoint."
While it may be unreasonable to expect Witherspoon to perform like Haden the Steelers hope he's an improvement over Cockrell, although oddly enough his career is starting on a similar arc.
By the way, in case you're wondering if Witherspoon is in the running for the still unannounced slot corner position, Tomlin indicated he is not. "We just wanted to add outside corner depth," the coach said. (The Witherspoon trade) provides versatility for us, talking about Cam Sutton and his ability to move inside (and having) enough capable outside guys, having enough depth at that position."
This means that unless Witherspoon beats out Sutton for the corner spot opposite Haden he will compete with James Pierre and Justin Layne for defensive snaps in the nickel and dime defenses, respectively.
