Golson’s hands present new look
The Steelers said goodbye this offseason to Ike Taylor, their longtime cornerback whose hands were infamous for their inability to catch interceptions. Friday night, they drafted a replacement whose hands are considerably softer.
In the second round, the Steelers selected Mississippi cornerback Senquez Golson, whose ball-hawking skills made him a coveted player for a defense that has been starved for turnovers the past few seasons.
“I really believe at this point in the draft we were looking for someone with exceptions skills, and Senquez has exceptional ball skills,” defensive backs coach Carnell Lake said. “He does an outstanding job tracking the football. Anytime you have a guy who can pluck the ball out of the air, he has real value in the league.
“The league is a pass-oriented league. It’s been transitioning for quite a while to that. It requires multiple formations, multiple personnel on the field. Sometimes, five or six DBs. The more DBs you can have on the field who can defend the pass and take the ball away, it will help us out a lot.”
Golson had 10 interceptions last season for the Rebels, the most for a Division I cornerback. The only other player who had more interceptions was Louisville safety Gerod Holliman, who had 14.
Lake said the only reason Golson lasted until late in the second round was his size. At 5 feet 9 and 176 pounds, Golson was the smallest defensive back invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.
“He’s not one of the bigger corners, but what I really like, what I measure DBs on, is how tough they are,” Lake said. “They have to check that box for me, and I think he’ll do that. If he had been two inches taller, we probably wouldn’t have gotten him. He probably would have gone high in the first round. He has unusual ball skills and unusual production, especially when it comes to interceptions. If you look at the corners that have been selected before him, they can’t match his productivity when it comes to interceptions. If he was taller, teams would have jumped on him right away.”
Golson also excelled in track and baseball as a prep in Mississippi. He was the 6A Mississippi state champion in the 100-meter dash and was selected in the eighth round of the 2011 MLB draft by the Boston Red Sox. He turned down a $1.1 million offer from the Red Sox to sign with the Rebels.
“You look down at the paper, and it has all those millions of dollars on it, it was hard to turn down, but football is what I love to do,” Golson said. “Football is in my heart. I just followed my heart, and it all turned out well.”
Golson is a candidate to begin his career as a slot corner in the defensive subpackages, but Lake said he has the smarts and tenacity to play on the outside, too.
“Senquez is very intelligent and very football aware, very knowledgeable about the game,” Lake said. “I was asking him questions about the defenses he played at Mississippi, situations the defense had at Mississippi, and, before I could finish the question he was answering it. He’s very sharp. I really like that about him.
’He won’t have a problem learning the system. I can put him in multiple situations because of that. I think he’ll adapt very quickly to different schemes and positions we may put him in, whether it’s in the nickel or the corner outside.”