Chiefs figure to test ailing secondary
Status of CBs Burns, Haden cloudy with Kansas City visiting
The Pittsburgh Steelers feel as if they possess good depth at cornerback. Sunday, it is increasingly appearing as if they’d better.
Artie Burns joined Joe Haden as starting cornerbacks who are injured, and that could leave the Steelers without both for their home opener Sunday against the high-octane Kansas City offense.
Burns was a limited practice participant Friday because of a toe injury believed to have been suffered during the session. He is officially listed on the Steelers’ injury report as questionable to play Sunday.
Haden completed a week in which he did not practice at all following a hamstring injury suffered during last weekend’s season-opening tie at Cleveland.
“Whoever’s in there, we’re ready to go,” veteran Coty Sensabaugh said of the secondary. “We’re gonna be ready to go, and we’re looking forward to the challenge of this game.”
Led by strong-armed secondyear quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs put up 38 points in a road victory against the Los Angeles Chargers last week. Mahomes completed four passes of at least 30 yards, three of them to Tyreek Hill, one of the NFL’s fastest players.
Sensabaugh and Cameron Sutton are the Steelers’ No. 3-4 cornerbacks and would carry much-increased roles if Burns and Haden do not play.
Neither would confirm who is the “next man up” if only one starter is scratched Sunday (almost certainly, Haden, in that case); it was Sutton who took Haden’s spot after he was injured during the second half against the Browns.
Sensabaugh was not active for that game, but top slot corner Mike Hilton confirmed earlier this week that Sensabaugh was getting first-team cornerback repetitions while Burns was practicing and Haden was not.
Sutton said he took practice reps this week at both outside corner spots, in the slot and as a dome defensive back (hybrid linebacker).
“It’s just playing
football; whether I will be at corner or nickel or dime or whatever, you know what the deal is,” Sutton said. “I feel like I am already a step ahead as far as putting myself in position to make the play.”
A third-round pick who spent the first half of his 2017 rookie season on injured reserve, Sutton has one NFL start — against the New England Patriots in Week 15 last season. He also split time with Sensabaugh in three other 2017 games while Haden was out because of injury — playing the entire second half of the last game in lieu of seven-year veteran Sensabaugh.
Four of Sensabaugh’s 33 NFL starts came last season for the Steelers, his first with Pittsburgh.
If Haden does not play Sunday, it will be the 20th game of the past 50 he has missed because of injury. He has not played in all 16 games of a season since his rookie 2010 season for the Browns, for whom he played 2010-16.
Burns has never missed a game in his career since being the Steelers’ first-round pick in 2016.