Jun 16, 2015 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – When talking about the potential of the Steelers defense in 2015, the conversation usually doesn’t get far before Cortez Allen’s name comes up.

The fifth-year cornerback might be the most important piece to the puzzle when it comes to Pittsburgh’s chances of turning around a pass defense that ranked 27th in the NFL last season. Allen, 26, appeared in 11 games last season, making seven starts. He recorded 41 tackles, two interceptions and had 11 pass defenses, which doesn’t look bad until you consider he was constantly picked on and drew nine penalties.

Often, he was in position for a play, but found himself coming up just short of making an interception or knocking a pass away.

The rollercoaster ride finally ended when Allen was pulled from the starting lineup midway through the season, then suffered a broken thumb in practice that required surgery and eventually landed him on injured reserve.

It was not what the Steelers envisioned when they gave Allen a five-year, $26-million contract extension at the end of training camp last year.

The poor season and contract were the last thing on Allen’s mind as the Steelers opened their three-day mandatory mini-camp Tuesday. He’s intent on being better this season.

“There’s a lot of little things,” Allen said. “A lot of fundamental things I was so critical on in college that I sort of got away from, in my opinion. That’s what I’m working on now, just getting back to the basics of football as far as technique and stuff.”

At 6-1 and 196 pounds, Allen has one thing most of the Steelers’ other cornerbacks lack – size. With the retirement of Ike Taylor in the offseason, Allen and William Gay are being counted on to not only be the starting cornerbacks, but to set the tone for a young group.

“We need him to not only improve upon last year, but this is his fifth year, and we have some younger cornerbacks behind him,” said defensive backs coach Carnell Lake. “So we need him to take a leadership role.”

Part of that leadership is taking responsibility for what went wrong last season and making sure it doesn’t happen again. Allen has taken care of the first part.

“Last year was last year,” he said. “You’ve got to move on.”

The more difficult step is what he is now focused on.

“It’s not just Cortez,” said Gay. “We all need to be better. Everybody on this defense needs to be better.”

With Allen scheduled to count $6.9 million against the salary cap this season – only Ben Roethlisberger, Lawrence Timmons and Antonio Brown account for more ¬- the Steelers need him to play at a high level.

The size of his contract, however, is not what motivates Allen.

“What motivates me and what hurts me more than anything else is letting (down) the guys who work around me,” said Allen.

“If we could all reach our full potential, there’s no limit what we could do.”

The Steelers will practice today and Thursday before breaking for training camp. … Beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, individual game tickets for the 2015 season will be available through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster’s toll free sales line: 1-800-745-3000. Tickets will not be sold at Ticketmaster outlets.