Steelers Now
Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports tabbed two third-year Pittsburgh Steelers players primed for a breakout season in 2025 — tight end Darnell Washington and cornerback Cory Trice Jr.
“I’m calling a play-action deep shot on first down, in the opening series of the season with this selection,” Trapaso wrote. “Trice has played 194 snaps across two seasons after being a seventh-round pick by the Steelers in the 2023 draft. He tore his ACL before his rookie campaign and was placed on IR after those near 200 snaps last season with a hamstring injury.
“When the former suffocating press-man corner from Purdue has been available, he has a pick and two pass breakups. On 34 coverage snaps on Christmas last season against the Chiefs, Trice allowed two catches for 12 yards on three targets. OK, so Trice hasn’t been ridiculously productive in less than 200 career professional snaps. His play’s been encouraging, and I vividly recollect how intimidating his ball skills were in the Big Ten as a cornerback standing 6-foot-3 with nearly 33-inch arms. In his final season with the Boilermakers, Trice had two picks, 10 pass breakups and allowed fewer than 48% of targets to be caught in his coverage vicinity.
“If he can stay off the injury report, Trice has the towering presence to pair nicely with Joey Porter Jr. in the Steelers’ secondary, which is a dire need for this club.”
Trice has been snake-bitten by the injury bug his entire playing career. His size and physicality make him an attractive dime backer or potential tight end eraser if he can stay on the field. The problem is that there’s not much evidence that he can do that, as unfortunate as it is. Once he was finally healthy enough to suit up, he was baptized by fire against the Bengals’ star receivers in the regular season finale.
The team’s seventh-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Purdue, Trice missed his entire rookie season with an ACL injury. He played in just six games in 2024, missing 11 games due to a hamstring injury that occurred while covering a punt against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 22. Trice was on injured reserve for a significant portion of the season.
Trice has been a player with high hopes from the Steelers, despite being a seventh-round draft pick and has been considered by some a potential future starter.
“Another huge swing here. I can’t resist. After all Washington nearly tripled his reception total from his rookie season to Year 2. Granted, he went from seven receptions to 19, it’s still nearly triple,” Trapasso wrote.
“This gargantuan tight end from Georgia is a block-first monster, and he’s already one of the league’s best young people-movers at the position. He doesn’t have to be just that. With the Bulldogs, Washington genuinely flashed as a receiver. He simply doesn’t move in the same manner of today’s uber-slippery athletes at the position — he was just under 6-7 and 264 pounds...
