Pittsburgh Steelers fourth-year cornerback Cameron Sutton has had to play extensively this season due mainly to injuries to other cornerbacks to the roster. He’s played well overall in the process on his way to registering 24 total tackles. a sack an interception and three forced fumbles and all in just 376 total defensive snaps played. Not surprisingly, Sutton has played all over in the Steelers defense this season and on Thursday, defensive coordinator Keith Butler was asked about the cornerbacks versatility and how important it is for the team to have a player such as him.
“It matters a lot,” Butler said of Sutton. “The more valuable you make yourself as a defender, which that’s the way you do it, you know more than one position, Cam [Sutton] has. He knows what everybody on the field is doing for the most part in most of the defenses that we are in, if not all of them. Same things with T.J. [Watt]. T.J. studies what the offense does and has a good idea of what most everybody is doing on defense, not all the time because of the position he plays.”
Butler then proceeded to talk more about the importance of having defensive players know the roles of as many other players on the field as possible and why Sutton is important to the unit because of him being able to do just that.
“The more and more we know about what each other is doing, the better we are going to be,” Butler said. “For us to play well, we have to be able to trust the guy next to us that he is going to do his job. If I trust the guy next to me that he is going to do his job, then I’m not going to get out of position and try and do something I shouldn’t be trying to do when we get into those situations.”
2020 has been a big season for Sutton as it’s the final year of his rookie contract. In short, he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent in March and so far it looks like he’s increased his market valued in the nearly 400 defensive snaps that he’s played.
Sutton will be adding to that snap total on Sunday night either as an outside cornerback or as a sub package defender. Currently, starting outside cornerback Joe Haden is somewhat questionable for Sunday night against the Buffalo Bills due to a concussion. If he cant play Sunday night, Sutton would start in his place. If, however, Haden plays Sunday night and fellow starting cornerback Steven Nelson indeed returns to the field after missing the team’s last game with a knee injury, Sutton will go back to playing in defensive sub packages, something he’s done a lot of this season.
The Bills utilize a lot of personnel groupings with three or more wide receivers so that should lead to the Steelers playing a lot defensive groupings with three or more cornerbacks Sunday night and thus Sutton is sure to see even more playing time and possibly at a few different positions in the secondary throughout the contest.
“I think having Cam, people like him, is always beneficial for us especially,” Butler said Thursday.
