The Pittsburgh Steelers continued to dive feet first into free agency on the second day of the 'tampering' period. Late this evening the Steelers reached an agreement with Buffalo Bills starting cornerback Levi Wallace on a two-year contract worth 8 million. Wallace started 17 games during the regular season, and both of the Bills playoff games.
Wallace was a walk on at Alabama as a sophomore, eventually finding the field for 6 games as a junior. The fact that he was able to walk on at a program like Alabama is an amazing feat in itself, let alone become a solid contributor. As a senior Wallace scored one touchdown, had 3 interceptions, and finished the year with 48 tackles as Alabama would win the National Championship. From there he would go undrafted, and sign with Buffalo as a priority free agent. Wallace was waived prior to the beginning of the season, but signed with the Bills practice squad. In November the Bills would sign him to the active roster, and he'd make his first career start 5 days later. From there he would never look back.
Wallace would start every game the rest of 2018 (7), and wouldn't miss another start until 2020. During a week 4 game against Oakland (Las Vegas now) Wallace would injure his ankle and miss four games. Those would be the only four games he'd miss so far in his entire career.
Bills general manager Brandon Beane expressed an interest in signing Wallace a few weeks ago at the NFL combine.
"We'll definitely monitor the Levi situation and we'll look for depth (in) free agency if we lose him," general manager Brandon Beane said earlier this month at the NFL scouting combine. "But we'll look for it anyway. We're always looking for competition, and then, yeah, we're definitely going to evaluate the corners here and try and get to know them through this process."
For as little as the Steelers had to pay for Wallace it's a mystery that the Bills wouldn't want to bring him back. Lots of projections figured Wallace would get nearly 8 million per season, which would be closer to starting CB2 money in the NFL. Wallace figures into the Steelers lineup as a starter across from Cam Sutton who made the switch from slot corner to outside corner last season. The Steelers brought back Arthur Maulet on Saturday, and he likely figures into the slot position for now, and could have a battle with a rookie to keep that spot.
Levi Wallace is a big get for Pittsburgh who will immediately pay dividends in the rugged AFC North. “He’s a starter for us,” a team source said. #Steelers ⚫️🟡
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) March 15, 2022
ESPN reporter Jordan Schultz told SteelerNation.com this directly about Wallace.
Big fan of the Levi Wallace add for Pittsburgh. Buffalo loved him — great dude, great teammate, winning player. Steelers told me he’ll start too," He continued. "Know what he [Wallace] is and isn’t as a player and he is a great guy to have on your defense.
With Wallace starting opposite of star corner TreDavious White teams would often take their chance with Wallace instead of White. Wallace was targeted 81 times by opposing quarterbacks last season, and allowed 47 receptions. Quarterbacks finished with a 79.7 quarterback rating while targeting Wallace completing 58% of their passes.
The Steelers require their cornerbacks to tackle, and he's a willing participant. From 2019 to 2021 only Joe Haden, and Charvarius Ward had more tackles on running plays. If you're into next gen statistics, Wallace allowed only 0.6 yards per defensive snap. That ranked him 7th among all corners in the NFL last season.
His first career interception came in 2019 against Steelers then quarterback Duck Hodges.
Tucsonan and former Tucson High Badger Levi Wallace records his first-career NFL interception to ice the game. #BUFvsPIT pic.twitter.com/8YducuYJza
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) December 16, 2019
He would follow that up by intercepting Ben Roethlisberger in 2020. The Steelers would lose both of these games.
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Due to the low monetary value in the Wallace signing it should allow them to still sign Ahekllo Witherspoon if they so choose. It was reported yesterday that a contract for Witherspoon was coming soon, but it's been over 36 hours and there hasn't been another mention of it.
If not the Steelers will likely try to find a cornerback early on in the draft. It's a deep draft for corners, and the Steelers are notoriously bad at drafting them, but it's likely they add someone to the mix still. Someone like Trent McDuffie from Washington could be a target in the first round.
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