A cornerback is a cornerback is a cornerback.

Teams throw a fifth defensive back – often of the cornerback variety – on the field in more than half their snaps, and have for years now. A team’s base defense is still the main method of strategy, but sub-packages have an equal level of importance.

The escalation of this shift in defensive tactics has occurred throughout the career of Steelers cornerback William Gay. A fifth-round draft pick in 2007, Gay has flipped between a starting spot and nickel duties, but since his second season, and including a one-year stop in Arizona in 2012, hasn’t played fewer than 540 snaps.

He’s a cornerback, therefore, he’s going to get on the field.

Gay is the elder statesman among a Steelers’ cornerback group as eclectic as any other on the team. Gay and Cortez Allen are the mid-round picks, but Allen got the extension Gay did not. Antwon Blake wasn’t drafted and Senquez Golson was taken in the second round of this draft.

To Gay, that’s the group they have, and it’s about results.

“It’s not about who starts, because we had plenty of starters last year,” Gay said, according to Tribune Review reporter Ralph N. Paulk. “It’s about making plays. As a group, we have to get better.”

Those plays have been needed for a few years now. The Steelers were the league’s top defense in 2010, according to Football Outsiders’ DVOA statistic. They fell to 19th in 2013 and all the way down to 30th last year. It’s been a combination of a sagging run defense, a lack of splash plays (sacks and takeaways) and coverage that hasn’t come close to the suffocating blanket it used to be.

Who’s taking the first snap of the game matters far less than it used to. It seems likely the Steelers will have their top three cornerbacks – projected to be Allen, Gay and Blake heading into training camp – on the field plenty often. Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler and defensive backs coach Carnell Lake have suggested Golson has an opportunity to see the field as well.

So who cares who starts? It’s going to be about who finishes.