Welcome to the terrible take, a daily segment telling Steeler Nation what's on our minds.

I'm Melanie Friedlander.

As the Steelers continue their work in OTA, there is a lot to be excited about.

High on that list is seeing the second year players make a jump from their rookie performances.

Broderick Jones, Joey Porter Jr. Kianu Benton, and Nick Herbig should all be major contributors this year.

I expect Arnold Washington to benefit from the new

offense under offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. But the player that is most

intriguing when it comes to his second year in Pittsburgh to me has to be

cornerback Corey Trice Jr.

Drafted in the seventh round, Trice dropped due to his injury history.

And many people fell vindicated in their concerns when his rookie season was lost

after he sustained his second aL tear at training camp.

To be fair, there is some data to back up those concerns.

A study published in 2019 looked at all NCAA players invited to the NFL combine from 2006 to 2012.

This was more than 2,000 athletes.

100 of them were found to have prior surgical repair of a torn ACL.

Those players were followed during their early NFL careers.

26 a.

Tails occurred in this group.

12 repeat tears on the same knee and 14 occurred on the opposite knee as was the case with

Trice.

The meantime to second injury was 22 months into their NFL careers.

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