Month after torn ACL, Cory Trice ‘in a good place,’ intends to be present all season with Steelers

Cory Trice meandered his way around the locker room at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. Leaning on crutches that resembled the tall and slender cornerback himself, Trice made his way to his locker.

This, of course, isn’t the way he wanted his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers to go. But now that it’s Trice’s reality, he intends on making the best of it.

“I get it people say it’s tough, but I try not to question it though,” Trice said of the torn ACL in his right knee suffered less than a week into training camp last month. “Everything happens for a reason. Since I have been through it before, I know what to expect. I will say that I feel like I am in a way better spot this one then the last one. I am only 2 ½ weeks out, and I feel really good.”

Two years ago while playing for Purdue, it was during the second game of the season that Trice suffered a torn ACL — that one in his left knee.

Each was surely demoralizing in its own way, but when Trice went down in a non-contact situation early during what was the first padded practice of camp at Saint Vincent College, it thwarted the momentum Trice had been building in looking like a player capable of contributing to the Steelers secondary months after joining the organization as a seventh-round pick.

A month into what is typically a rehab of roughly a half a year, Trice said he intended on regularly attending Steelers meetings and practices this season so that he could glean as much as he can from his first year as a professional.

“Being around the guys, the coaches, they still believe in me, still behind me, so that’s definitely helping the mental out a lot,” Trice said. “So definitely, I am still in a good place, still right where I need to be.”

The 6-foot-3, 206-pound Trice had been projected to go in the middle rounds after being a starter since his redshirt freshman season at Purdue. While he might not have been a significant contributor as a rookie, the Steelers’ cornerbacks corps had been considered arguably the unit of the team with the least depth — something that was highlighted when the Steelers signed three veterans at the position in the 48 hours after teams made their final cuts.

“I feel like I was definitely in a good spot,” Trice said of his work at organized team activities and minicamp, “but everything happens for a reason. They want me around, rehabbing with the team, staying around the guys. I am still learning. I am still learning, so when I come back I can pick up right where I left off.

“I am gonna be right back here next year around this time.”

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