Steelers Sign 2019 Draft Pick, OLB Sutton Smith

The Pittsburgh Steelers have now signed another member of their 2019 draft class and this time it’s outside linebacker Sutton Smith, the first of the team’s three sixth-round selections this year.

Smith, who played his college football at Northern Illinois, was the 175th overall selection in this year’s draft.

At this year’s scouting combine, Smith measured in at 6003, 233-pounds with 30 3/4-inch arms and 9-inch hands. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.69-seconds and did 25 reps on the bench. His vertical jump was 31.5-inches and his broad jump was 9’10”. He ran the short shuttle in 4.32-seconds and the 3-cone in 6.75-seconds. He registered 139 total tackles and 30 sacks during his college career which culminated with him winning the MAC’s Vern Smith Leadership Award (MVP). Smith broke his own NIU record for sacks in a season with two in the MAC Championship game to give him 15 on the year.

“Sutton Smith is a quick guy. He’s going to add some depth to our outside linebackers to help us on special teams,” Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler said immediately following the selection of Smith. “We’ll get him here and see what he does best. Right now, we know that he’s a great rusher for us. He’s going to create some great competition for us at outside linebacker, which is always good. We’ll see when he gets here at camp, what he does best and try to utilize his abilities to that.”

According to estimates by Over the Cap ahead of this year’s draft, Sutton’s four-year contract that he signed on Tuesday is expected to total out at around $2,520,000 and include a signing bonus of roughly $203,288. His 2019 salary cap charge is expected to be around $545,822, according to those estimated numbers.

As soon as Smith’s contract is officially filed with the NFLPA, we’ll pass along the exact numbers to you. Several more members of the Steelers 2019 draft class are expected to sign their rookie contracts by end of this coming weekend as that’s when the team’s annual rookie mini camp is scheduled to take place. Earlier on Tuesday, the Steelers announced the signing defensive lineman Isaiah Buggs, the team’s second of three sixth-round draft picks.