Rookie Tre Norwood the latest to audition for Steelers' nickel DB job

From Arthur Maulet and Antoine Brooks, to James Pierre and Justin Layne, the Pittsburgh Steelers have tried out no shortage of candidates to play as a fifth defensive back when they deploy the nickel subpackage.

Formally add rookie Tre Norwood to the list.

Coach Mike Tomlin termed himself “excited” to see the seventh-round pick from Oklahoma play in the slot during Friday’s preseason finale at the Carolina Panthers.

“He’s focused exclusively on safety for the better part of this process, but he’s been trained, and he’s been learning nickel the whole time,” Tomlin said.

Maulet suffered an ankle injury during last week’s preseason game, and Brooks was waived Tuesday after a lower-leg injury had plagued him for three weeks. Layne and (especially) Pierre would seem to give the Steelers their “best five” defensive backs on the field when they go nickel — but, as defensive coordinator Keith Butler again indicated Wednesday, the Steelers prefer Cameron Sutton plays outside cornerback. Layne and Pierre can only play the outside; if they’re the “nickel” that would mean Sutton moves into the slot.

Running out of options, Norwood is the next man up.

“He’s a very smart young man,” Butler said of Norwood. “He’s like Cam Sutton. They’re smart enough to play more than one position.”

Famously dubbed “Swiss Army Knife” by Tomlin when Tomlin announced him as the 245^th overall pick in April, Norwood played outside corner, nickel corner, free safety and strong safety for Big 12 champion Oklahoma. His primary gig so far during this preseason and training camp has been to backup All Pro Minkah Fitzpatrick at free safety.

“Yeah, but he’s capable,” Butler said. “We wouldn’t stick him over there if we didn’t think he was capable at it. We have confidence that he can do that stuff. Is he going to play the nickel? I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see this ball game and going into the next one who’s going to be our nickel. We’ll see.”

The Steelers have been in “we’ll see” mode about their nickel all offseason, since it became apparent Mike Hilton was leaving via free agency. With the regular-season opener less than three weeks away, they are running out of time.

For myriad reasons, candidates have come and gone. Although Pierre and Layne have to varying degrees shown themselves capable to play outside cornerback, Butler tacitly explained why the Steelers would prefer to keep Sutton there.

“We like for that (slot) guy to be able to blitz a little bit and put pressure on the quarterback,” Butler said. “Is (Sutton) good at that? He can do that. He can do that. He’s probably better suited to covering than he is to blitzing. We like that position to be physical and to be able to blitz a little bit, and to be able to cover, also. It’s not an easy position to play.”

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