View topic - keenan lewis and joe burnett both rookies likely to start...

[Hi5Steeler Profile]

Youth may finally be served
December 7th, 2009
It looks like we will get our first extended look at rookie cornerbacks Joe Burnett and Keenan Lewis Thursday night in Cleveland.

And the two will receive significant playing time for the first time this season, only because the Steelers are desperate.

William Gay is hurt, and the Steelers haven’t been able to cover for his shortcomings when the third-year cornerback is healthy and strong safety Troy Polamalu is not healthy (i.e. sidelined by an injury). Ike Taylor, meanwhile, is in the midst of his worst stretch since Bill Cowher benched the seventh-year veteran in 2006.

Not that we’re likely to see coach Mike Tomlin start a pair of rookie cornerbacks in Cleveland even if it is the Browns we’re talking about.

But his assertion at his weekly news conference that the Steelers want to see what Burnett and Lewis can do is a refreshing one. And maybe it is one that will not only lead to a quick fix but also a change or at least tweak in organizational philosophy.

Director of football operations Kevin Colbert’s approach to the draft is to take players with an eye toward two years down the road. Tomlin, meanwhile, is on record as saying that players make the most improvement from their first year to their second one.

Take those philosophies and it is easy to see why the Steelers have not relied much on rookies since Tomlin took over as head coach, though injuries contributed to the team bringing along first-round picks Lawrence Timmons (2007) and Rashard Mendenhall (2008) slowly.

Had the Steelers been more open to expecting more out of their rookies maybe they would have kept Anthony Madison, their best special-teams player in 2008, instead of Keiwan Ratliff when final cuts were made in early September.

Ratliff is no longer with the team while Madison is back with the Steelers. And it worth asking why they needed Ratliff when they have two young talents at cornerback in Burnett and Lewis?

Also, the Steelers can attest as well as anybody the impact that rookies are capable of making.

Raiders wide receiver Louis Murphy burned them for 128 receiving yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning one, last Sunday. The Vikings’ Percy Harvin and the Bengals’ Bernard Scott each returned kickoffs for touchdowns against the Steelers earlier this season.

Johnny Knox caught six passes for 70 yards and scored the game-tying touchdown for the Bears against the Steelers in September. In the season opener, Kenny Britt’s 57-yard reception set up the Titans’ only touchdown at Heinz Field.

Harvin and Britt were first-round picks last April. But Murphy, Knox and Scott were all taken no earlier than the fourth round, and Knox and Scott are small-school products.

The point to all of this is maybe the Steelers shouldn’t be so hesitant to depend on first-year players, though it is worth noting they have gotten a significant return from Mike Wallace, their rookie wide receiver.

Rookies across the NFL have made substantial contributions at most if not all positions and perhaps it's time for the Steelers to take notice of that.

Not that they should abandon their philosophy of erring on the side of caution when it comes to playing rookies; it has largely been a good one for them.

But they also need to recognize that they don’t need to essentially redshirt most of their rookies -– and that in some of those players’ cases the future is now.

We may soon find out if that is the case with Burnett and Lewis.



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