Keith Butler's defense knowingly put a major emphasis on the usage of defensive backs for the team's 2018 campaign. Much of our focus on the progress of the Steelers' secondary has been about communication and the players' recognition of when and where they should be on any given assignment.
But coverage fundamentals when communication isn't the issue is a problem that continues to allow big plays to opponents:
The Steelers' defense has the second most passes defended in the NFL with 20, second only to the Ravens' 22. Half of those passes defended come from Steelers' cornerbacks Joe Haden, Artie Burns, Cameron Sutton and Mike Hilton.
Haden leads the team with four passes defended as the proper example at cornerback, while Hilton has three; Sutton, two; and Burns, one. Their improvement is vital to how the defense can properly smother passing offenses using formations that require heavy cornerback usage.
The least productive of the Steelers' cornerbacks is undoubtedly Coty Sensabaugh, who was given the opportunity to start in place of Burns on Monday night against the Buccaneers.
Sensabaugh made the team because he's reliable in knowing his assignment. Beyond that, his contributions to the defense are negligible because of how he fails at both maintaining coverage in his assignment and how poorly he plays the ball.
Watch how he lost against Chris Godwin in the end zone; he shadowed Godwin but was shaken off by a simple stutter-step. Once Godwin created space between himself and Sensabaugh, Ryan Fitzpatrick was able to throw comfortably to Godwin and Sensabaugh's attempt at recovery was unable to break up the pass:
While Sensabaugh may know his assignment, his inability to keep up with Godwin because of poor coverage skills creates the first problem, and that's compounded by his lack of ball skills once the pass is in the air. That's why he is the last cornerback on the team's depth chart.
The player whose progress raises more concern is Burns, who had an awful game against the Chiefs and gave up multiple big plays against the Buccaneers. Burns has the athleticism that Sensabaugh doesn't, and because of that he can compete against receivers by being faster, quicker and more able to recover from a quick move.
But Burns has faults of his own, specifically in fundamental mistakes in reacting to passes and how he plays the ball while it's in the air. It's worth noting that the frequency of his fundamental mistakes has decreased since his rookie season, but they still linger.
One noticeable play was Mike Evans' touchdown reception in the fourth quarter. Watch where Burns' eyes are in his backpedal. You can see he's not looking at Evans and he's watching either Fitzpatrick or the progressions at the line. Typically, cornerbacks aren't supposed to watch the eyes of a quarterback unless they're good enough in coverage to play their assignment and be aggressive in those situations.
Burns hasn't proven himself good enough in coverage to have his eyes in the backfield as long as he did on the touchdown. You can see his stare remains just long enough for Evans to break for the pylon and get past Burns for the score:
Even when Burns does avoid fundamental mistakes like those, his problems covering the deep ball remain. Watch how he works in his coverage of Evans on a 51-yard completion. Burns establishes inside leverage well, then flips and turns his hips smoothly to get into a sprint and chase Evans. Those parts of the play are what you want, but his problem comes when he engages Evans with his hands just a second too early:
Against the fastest weapons offenses have to offer, being a good cornerback requires layers of aggressiveness and delicacy combined with timing and athleticism. Burns has the athleticism and flashes the other components in his play, but his issues arise when trying to put them together to produce consistent play. He's putting himself in position to contest passes, but he has to improve his reactions when targeted and in those situations.
When he plays an underneath route, Burns shows his combination of skills with confidence. Watch how he breaks on DeSean Jackson's underneath route. He recognizes the route and breaks on the ball to break up the pass:
Luckily for Burns, he has a good example in Haden, a cornerback who does combine all the right components. Haden's expertise is in how he's almost always in position, how he uses great footwork to maintain coverage, and how he finishes the play by attacking the ball.
Watch how he takes away a deep pass to Evans in a similar situation to Burns' earlier follies. He starts in a backpedal, establishes inside leverage and flips his hips to turn upfield and run, but he finds the ball and makes a proper play on it to swat it away:
Haden's example is what Burns and the other young cornerbacks must follow. The first steps are being in the right spot and maintaining proper footwork to properly challenge the ball. Once Burns and the other cornerbacks are more consistent there, they'll have better opportunities to challenge passes and eliminate big plays with improved timing on their jumps and aggressive ball skills.