Feb 29, 2016 3 min read

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Over the weekend, I wrote that if the choice came down to taking the fourth or fifth-best corne, the Steelers could choose to pass on taking a cornerback in the first round of the draft to instead take a top-rated safety.

Then, we saw them all on the field together Monday. And it became apparent that the top five or six corners in this draft are better than the top safeties at least in one area that really counts – speed.

While most of the top corners showed average to above average speed, with the exception of Mackensie Alexander, who did not run, the top-rated safeties were somewhat underwhelming.

That could lead the Steelers to take a cornerback in the first round of the draft for the first time since 1997, when they selected Chad Scott.

Vonn Bell of Ohio State, Karl Joseph of West Virginia and Jeremy Cash of Duke didn’t run, but other guys, such as Boise’s Darien Thompson and Southern Utah’s Miles Killebrew did.

And while nobody would have expected a pair of big safeties – Thompson is 6-1, 208, while Killebrew is a monster-like 6-2, 219 – to break 4.5, both ran in the 4.7 range.

That won’t be enough to get either into the first round. In fact, both might be considered more third-round picks because of their lack of speed, despite both being very good, productive college football players.

Bell, Joseph or Cash could change my mind with their on-campus workouts, but I now don’t see the Steelers passing on a corner to take a safety in the first round.

My pick coming out of the combine would be William Jackson III. I thought he might not run great at the combine, which could mean he might be available in the second round – and by great, I’m talking in the 4.5 to 4.6 range.

But Jackson, at 6-0, 190 pounds, ran a 4.37 40 and looked good in the position drills. I liked Jackson going into the combine and he likely forced his way into the conversation among the top corners available.

That should, counting Jalen Ramsey of Florida State, make for five possible first-round corners, with Alexander, Vernon Hargreaves of Florida and Eli Apple of Ohio State being the others.

Of the four in that group who did run Monday, all were at 4.5 or under in the 40. And I have no doubt that Alexander also will run a sub-4.5 40.

The Steelers should get a chance to draft one of those five, with Ramsey being the only one they will have no shot at since he’ll likely go top-10.

Then, they can draft their safety in the second or third round.