Wallace overcame a huge obstacle

All kidding aside, Wallace knows he couldn’t have gotten through it without everyone having his back.

“I had a lot of support from my teammates and coaches,” said Wallace. “Whatever I needed, especially that dark face mask to not let the sun come in as much. They do a great job supporting here. Not too many people know I played with Bell’s palsy and was still recovering from it a little bit at the end of the season. It was definitely an interesting season. I knew it wasn’t more than I could handle, and I know that God was never going to give me more than what I could handle. Just a blessing to still be able to play with that impairment throughout the season.”

Wallace, who signed with the Steelers as an unrestricted free agent in the 2022 offseason, finished last season with four interceptions, three of them coming after his Bell’s palsy diagnosis. His play got stronger as the year wore on, a product of being more comfortable in the defense as time passed, but said the key is to never just feel ‘comfortable.’

“It never stops,” said Wallace. “You can always continue to grow. A bunch of the guys are looking forward to this offseason and moving forward, and you want to keep building that camaraderie and trust off the field.

“I want to do more of what I did when I was in Buffalo. We used to go out to dinner every week at different restaurants. One, it gives you a chance to learn the city, but two just get to know guys and go hang out and enjoy a meal with each other. That’s one of the things that keeps you going late in the season and propels you. You’re not pointing fingers at each other because you trust each other in those hard moments. And you know that the other guys have got your back, too. And so I think that’s what really builds a team.

“We did a couple of times last year, but I definitely want to build on that. Even staying in touch with each other in the offseason and visiting each other, just learning families and stuff like that. I think that’s super important…