Steven Nelson's three year contract with the Steelers was designed to give him a huge boost from making $4 million in 2019 to over $10 million in 2020 and 2021. That made his season important to prove he was worth big money as a good cornerback.
He finished the season with two impressive breakups, a further reminder just how much of an upgrade he's been over Coty Sensabaugh and Artie Burns:
Nelson finished the season with one interception, seven passes defensed and never allowed a single touchdown while being targeted. In 2018 he was the NFL's most targeted cornerback with the Chiefs because of the lack of talent on their defense.
It forced Nelson to go up against the top receivers of each team without much help from pass rushers to shorten plays by getting to the quarterback. The Steelers answered both of those issues with Joe Haden taking on each team's top receivers and having a defense that led the NFL in sacks for a third straight season.
This allowed Nelson to play to his own strengths and not be put in more desperate situations. He puts himself in good position regularly to challenge passes in various situations. Watch how he plays Jaleel Scott on this attempted end zone fade. The Ravens isolated Nelson by motioning Marquise Brown away and leaving Nelson on an island.
Robert Griffin III goes right to Scott, but Nelson establishes inside leverage and then pins himself on Scott so that there's no room for Griffin's pass to get there:
But physicality was always Nelson's best trait as a cornerback. He was scrappy and often won jump ball battles even with big name receivers. As I wrote back when I previewed him when the Steelers signed him last March, Nelson's biggest question in his game was how he covered the deep ball.
But he did a very good job against deep passes all season. Watch how he plays Miles Boykin where he stays ahead of his man the entire way. Nelson pinned Boykin to the sideline while also staying ahead of his route. By the time the ball got to them, Nelson was in such a good position that Boykin had to play defense by swatting the ball away:
Nelson didn't contribute much to the Steelers' league leading 38 turnovers, but his role is still important. His ability to take away options don't allow teams to strategize their attack plan against the Steelers by simply targeting the second cornerback.
This forced more targets to their more talented turnover creators like Minkah Fitzpatrick and Haden. Then in the big picture, Nelson's coverage also helped with forcing quarterbacks to hold the ball longer and help the pass rush get home. His contributions proved important in the makeup of the defense and will be needed as they continue to grow.
MORE CLASSROOM
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