Steven Nelson was the most expensive of the Steelers' offseason free agent signings, and with Joe Haden looks to give their defense the best one-two punch at cornerback since Ike Taylor and Deshea Townsend.
Nelson gets his first shot with the Steelers against the Patriots, who ended his 2018 season when they beat his Chiefs in the AFC Championship game last year. Not only is that something he's not forgotten, but it's something Bill Belichick and Tom Brady will look to exploit in their attack plan.
Let's look at how that could work out when the two teams face off Sunday night:
Nelson's two starts against the Patriots last season were the only times he's started against Brady in his career. He was the Chiefs' top cornerback on a defense that lacked major playmakers in the secondary, outside of the oft-injured Eric Berry. That required Nelson to be at his best for the Chiefs' defense to function.
This left him in more one-on-ones without safety coverage so the Chiefs could pull off more blitz packages to help their lesser-talented cornerbacks. That forced Nelson away from his strengths, and how aggressive and physical he could play because he couldn't rely on safety help.
Over his two starts against Brady, Nelson was targeted 12 times, allowing six completions for 88 yards and a touchdown with eight tackles, one pass defended and a defensive pass interference penalty for 37 yards. That meant Brady had a 102.08 passer rating when targeting Nelson.
Let's look at that penalty, when he was covering Josh Gordon during the regular season. Nelson starts the play with solid coverage, pinning Gordon to the sideline. But it's at the top of the route where Nelson loses him and sees Gordon has a clean chance at the ball. He tries to make up for that by knocking at Gordon's legs, drawing the flag:
Nelson is very good at the start of the play and solid at taking on the initial cuts and digs of underneath routes. But when receivers turn upfield after those cuts, Nelson starts to lose out.
The biggest play he surrendered in the AFC Championship game was a touchdown to Phillip Dorsett. Watch how hard Nelson bites on the first cut of Dorsett's out-and-up. It gives Brady the space to target Dorsett in the end zone. Nelson recovers to challenge the pass but can't break up the play:
When Nelson can play on these breaks with a safety behind him, he can avoid the risk of giving up the big play, but the Chiefs couldn't give him that help in their scheme because their secondary didn't have a better cover corner.
The Steelers are comfortable living with Haden on islands like that, which means Nelson could now be the cornerback they provide more support. The Patriots use a similar scheme with All-Pro cornerback Stephon Gilmore. They often doubled Antonio Brown and gave their lesser talented cornerbacks safety support.
When Nelson can play those underneath routes aggressively, he's much tighter in coverage and closes down passing windows. Watch how he takes away a back-shoulder pass to Dorsett later in the same game. Dorsett and Brady thought with Nelson on an island they could back him off and get an easy 25-yard back-shoulder pass, but Nelson wiped it out:
Nelson is comfortable using his hands to battle with receives and avoid flags. Watch how he challenges Cordarrelle Patterson on a post route. Patterson gets inside leverage because Nelson knows he has safety help, but Nelson makes a solid swipe to take away the pass:
Keith Butler's plan to give Nelson more safety support should make Nelson more comfortable playing to his strengths. There will be occasions he has to play on an island, but if the Steelers give him more help over the top, it could take away an advantage Brady exploited against the Chiefs in his two wins against them last season.
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