Steelers make deal with Browns to acquire CB Gilbert
From 2011 to 2014, the Cleveland Browns had six first-round draft picks.
None of them are with the team any longer.
The Steelers assured that Saturday when they acquired cornerback Justin Gilbert from the Browns for a sixth-round draft pick in 2018.
It was a much-needed move by the Steelers, who are once again thin at the cornerback position after Senquez Golson, a 2015 second-round draft pick, suffered a Lisfranc injury in training camp.
The Steelers ranked 30th in the NFL in pass defense in 2015. Defensive backs Antwon Blake, Brandon Boykin and Will Allen were not retained in the offseason, while the team used its top two draft picks on corner Artie Burns and safety Sean Davis.
But Burns missed much of training camp and the preseason with a quad injury. Davis, meanwhile, replaced Golson as the team’s nickel defensive back.
In Gilbert, the Steelers get a player who was the eighth-overall pick in the 2014 draft and one the team liked a lot during the draft process.
With Gilbert already having been selected by Cleveland, the Steelers instead took linebacker Ryan Shazier with the 15th-overall pick.
The 24-year-old Gilbert never lived up to his draft status with the Browns. After a slow start as a rookie, including missing two games with an illness and heel injury, he appeared in just nine games in 2015 after suffering a hip injury in training camp.
He suffered a concussion in the preseason this year.
Gilbert (6-0, 202 pounds) is one of a litany of picks that have now failed in Cleveland in recent seasons.
After taking Pro Bowl corner Joe Haden in 2010, the Browns used first-round picks on nose tackle Phil Taylor in 2011, running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weedon in 2012, Barkevious Mingo in 2013 and Gilbert and quarterback Johnny Manziel in 2014. None of that group remain with the team, with Mingo having been traded to New England late last month.
In two seasons in Cleveland, Gilbert had 29 tackles and an interception in 23 games, including three starts. He has two years remaining on his rookie contract which will pay him a base salary of $787,000 this season and $970,000 in 2017.
In other moves Saturday as the Steelers trimmed their roster to 53 players, the team released wide receivers Demarcus Ayers, Cobi Hamilton and Marcus Tucker, running backs Brandon Brown-Dukes and Cameron Stingily, offensive linemen Shahbaz Ahmed, Antoine Everett, Matt Feiler and Wade Hansen, cornerbacks Montell Garner, Doran Grant, Al-Hajj Shabazz and Donald Washington, defensive linemen Lavon Hooks, Caushaud Lyons and Johnny Maxey, linebackers Travis Feeney, Steven Johnson and Jermauria Rasco, quarterback Bryn Renner and safety Ray Vinopal.
The Steelers also waived/injured tight end Paul Lang, a Mt. Lebanon High School graduate who lived in Washington for 10 years as a child.
Grant was a fourth-round pick by the Steelers in 2015, while Feeney and Ayers were taken in the sixth and seventh rounds this year.
Running back Le’Veon Bell was placed on the Reserve/Suspended By Commissioner list. He will be eligible for reinstatement after serving a three-game suspension for violation of the league’s substance abuse policy.
Golson, who is expected to be out until at least late October, will likely be placed on injured reserve Sunday. He could eventually play this season if the team chooses to use its Reserve/Injured List with a designation to return. Under new rules this season, teams no longer have to designate a player for return when they place them on IR and can instead wait until the player is ready to be activated to do so.