With Patrick Mahomes awaiting, Cory Trice could be next up at CB in injury-riddled Steelers secondary

His first NFL start might come against a two-time NFL most valuable player and the MVP of the past two Super Bowls.

That test against Patrick Mahomes could come in front of a global audience in the league’s first foray into a Netflix telecast.

It could happen in a game the Pittsburgh Steelers need to win to interrupt a late-season slide and with first place in the AFC North hanging in the balance.

Worried? Not Cory Trice.

“I love it,” Trice said Monday from the Steelers’ locker room at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “I’m playing on Christmas, playing against Mahomes. I’m itching to make a play against Mahomes. I’m loving it.”

Suffice it to say the challenge will be the biggest of Trice’s two-year on-field career. He has encountered considerable off-the-field adversity such as the torn ACL that wiped out his entire rookie season and a hamstring injury that cost him 11 games this year.

Trice returned in time to dress Saturday in the Steelers’ 34-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. He ended up playing 49 snaps — a career-high — after an injury to starting corner Joey Porter Jr.

With Porter listed as questionable to play Wednesday because of his knee injury and the Steelers’ other starter, Donte Jackson, missing the game against the Ravens with a back injury, Trice could be tasked with making his first NFL start. The other outside corner could be James Pierre, whose start Saturday was the third of his career.

And it will come against the team with a 14-1 record and in a secondary that will be asked to contain the NFL’s most decorated active passer.

“I was out there all last game, so I’m always going to feel like I’m ready,” Trice said. “I’m out there every day, practicing when I can. I’ll be ready.”

Will it be enough, though? That is the question facing the Steelers, who also played without starting safety DeShon Elliott in back-to-back losses to Philadelphia and Baltimore.

The Steelers turned to Pierre, who wasn’t even on their roster at the outset of the season, to start in place of Jackson. Trice, the former seventh-round pick out of Purdue, essentially is the team’s fourth option at cornerback and had appeared in just three career games until Saturday. The Steelers turned to him in over veteran Cam Sutton, who has worked mostly in the slot this season.

Trice had five tackles, the most of any Steelers cornerback, in the loss to Baltimore.

“Cory has done a nice job in practice, and he did a nice job yesterday when given the opportunity to get back on a moving train,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “He has done so earlier in the year, so I expect more of the same from him.”

Trice had his first career interception in the second week of the season at Denver, and it was a pivotal turnover in the Steelers’ 13-6 win. Doing it against a rookie, Bo Nix, who was making his second career start, isn’t quite the same as matching wits with Mahomes.

“In terms of competing against a guy like Mahomes, he better focus on his fundamentals and his game,” Tomlin said. “He doesn’t have enough of a resume to get preoccupied with what Mahomes is doing. He needs to focus on his game, his quality of play, his eyes, his technique, his fundamentals, and I’m sure he will do that.”

Through 15 games, Mahomes has completed nearly 67% of his passes — matching his career average — for 3,608 yards and 23 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. But as the Chiefs pursue a third consecutive Super Bowl title, they have struggled to score points, failing to top 30 in any game this year. The Chiefs, in fact, are averaging 23.7 points, which ranks No. 11, just ahead of the Steelers (23.5 ppg.).

Since the Chiefs’ only loss of the season, Mahomes has gone five games without throwing an interception. And despite being limited by a high ankle sprain, Mahomes rushed for a 15-yard touchdown and completed 28 of 41 attempts for 260 yards and a touchdown Saturday in the Chiefs’ 27-19 victory against Houston.

Mahomes wouldn’t be blamed for salivating at the chance to encounter a secondary that includes Pierre, Trice and backup safety Damontae Kazee, who was tasked with replacing Elliott the past two weeks.

“We’re all pros. We know our jobs,” Trice said. “We know what we have to do. We just have to execute.”

It’s something the Steelers didn’t do with any regularity against the Eagles or Ravens, who exceeded 400 yards each against them.

Lamar Jackson, like Mahomes a two-time MVP, threw three touchdown passes against the Steelers, including scoring tosses to tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely. Those plays drew Tomlin’s ire because of the ease with which the Ravens reached the end zone.

“We should be better this time of the year,” Tomlin said, citing Elliott’s absence as a factor. “It’s just too late in the year to have guys running open like that. We have some work to do in terms of shoring that up.”

And with only one full day of practice to make the necessary corrections. Tomlin knows that no matter who is — or is not — lined up in the secondary, the Steelers have to do a better job against the Chiefs than they did the previous two weeks.

“It’s people trying to do too much, and it’s creating issues in terms of communication or a lack of fluidity,” he said. “We just have to be on it. We have to take care of our responsibilities and trust that others are doing the same.”