The Pittsburgh Steelers lost cornerback Mike Hilton in free agency a few weeks ago as the Mississippi product and former undrafted free agent signed a four-year, $24 million contract with AFC North foe Cincinnati Bengals. On the heels of Hilton signing with the Bengals, it appears as though the slot cornerback is taking quite a bit of abuse from fans of the Steelers on social media.
Hilton took to Twitter on Monday to seemingly address all the flack he’s been getting from fans of the Steelers since signing with the Bengals.
“Calling me a snake and traitor but still following me,” Hilton tweeted on Monday.
If indeed Hilton is receiving so much flack and taunting on social media for him signing with the Bengals a few weeks ago, that’s really sad. After all, it’s not like he did anything wrong. He deserved a nice contract this offseason after playing very well for the Steelers dating back to 2017. He was severely underpaid the last few seasons and mainly due to him being caught in the Steelers exclusive rights and restricted free agency traps.
Prior to signing recently with the Bengals, Hilton had earned just $5.0347 million with the Steelers, according to Over the Cap. That’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things and especially with him playing well over 50 percent of all defensive snaps for the Steelers for the last four seasons. He deserved the contract he received from the Bengals and probably a little bit more.
How will Hilton’s career now go moving forward now that he’s a member of the Bengals for the foreseeable future? We’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, however, leave Hilton alone if you’re a Steelers fan unless you want to thank him for his time spent in Pittsburgh. It’s a bad look for the Steelers fan base to do anything but that. If Steelers fans want to be mad at anything related to Hilton, they should be mad at the organization for not re-signing him.
