The Pittsburgh Steelers added to their secondary in the third round on Friday, selecting Georgia CB Daylen Everette towards the middle of the round. Everette is a big, physical cornerback who fits the Steelers’ mold for a lot of reasons. But he also fits that mold for the wrong reasons in the eyes of ESPN’s Cole Cubelic.
“Yeah, if you want to go in with Steelers corners that have been drafted over time that have trouble in man coverage, yeah. You could say that, sure. Fits right into that mold,” Cubleic said on an ESPN live stream.
Everette is one of the more interesting cornerbacks in the class. On one hand, there are some really exciting things about his game. Everette has the ideal build for the position, being tall with good length to jam receivers at the line of scrimmage. He’s also got quick feet, and he does have the long speed to carry receivers down the field.
It’s not hard to see why the Steelers liked Daylen Everette. He loves to play near the line of scrimmage and jam receivers, where he shows great technique to disrupt routes. He understands how to mirror receivers in and out of their breaks when he’s on his game.
But there is a reason he went in the third round, and there are reasons for Cubelic’s pessimism. For one, his instincts are still developing. He doesn’t anticipate things very quickly, which impacts his ability to make plays on the football. When he’s in zone coverage, his eyes can wander a bit, and it takes him a while to see things develop from there as well. And against the run, he’ll need to be more consistent in terms of technique as well.
That said, Everette has some good new teammates in the Steelers organization to learn from. There are some shades of his game in Joey Porter Jr. and Jamel Dean, players the Steelers would like to keep around as Everette develops.
Overall, Everette is a player worth taking a chance on towards the middle of the draft. As with any third-round pick, there are things he’s going to need to clean up. But the foundation and the traits are there. Now it’s up to the Steelers to develop them.
