We’re about to set sail full speed ahead into the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season. Players report to training camp Wednesday, we’re attending the first practice Thursday (and all the rest after) with preseason games, the regular season, and *hopefully* playoffs to follow.
Once Thursday hits, my sole focus will be on the players the team has. Until then, there’s one last review of the offseason worth mentioning. GM Omar Khan did well in his first full offseason but allowing CB Cam Sutton to jump to Detroit was his biggest mistake. It’s pain the team could feel all season.
Sutton steadily grew throughout his time in Pittsburgh. From third-round pick to carving out a role in dime packages to seeing more action in the slot before kicking to outside corner, his progression was always evident. His tackling improved, he got more comfortable playing on the perimeter, and he was the answer to so many of the Steelers’ secondary questions. Need a slot guy, as they did in 2021? Sutton was their man. How about replacing Steven Nelson? Sutton. Who will rotate with Minkah Fitzpatrick to let him make more plays on the ball? Sutton, obviously.
Sutton was the cure to everything. Now he’s gone. Which came as a surprise. Prior to the start of free agency, it felt like Sutton would remain in Pittsburgh, sticking with the Steelers’ model of draft-develop-retain. Instead, he took a three-year, $33 million deal with the Detroit Lions, a well-deserved contract. Reportedly, Pittsburgh’s offer wasn’t even close. They turned around and replaced him with Patrick Peterson, a future Hall of Famer and savvy veteran who can replace the leadership Sutton left. But will he replace everything else? There are questions about Peterson’s scheme fit and ability to be versatile, seemingly the team’s ultimate goal, though how it looks in practice is still messy.
Maybe Peterson works. To his credit, he’s still playing well into his mid-30s. But there’s a risk, an unknown, and Peterson won’t play forever. For Pittsburgh, why take the chance and assume that risk? Peterson signed for less but not that much less and the Steelers had the space to sign Sutton to the contract the Lions did.
Without Sutton, the flexibility of the Steelers’ secondary becomes a question mark. Sutton could and did align everywhere. Outside corner, slot corner, a roving dime player. He could rotate into the deep third, deep half, or function as the middle-hole player in Cover 2. Watch his game-sealing interception against the Las Vegas Raiders last season. Cover 2 look, Sutton becomes the deep-1/2 player who allows Fitzpatrick to rob the middle, forces the middle-of-field throw, and then takes a great angle, tracks the ball, and picks it off. Ballgame.
It’s moments like that which can be tough to replace. The small amount of financial savings isn’t worth the potential headache of replacing his Swiss Army Knife. Sutton did it all and did it well. Letting him walk was a serious hit to a talented Steelers’ secondary, coming off a year in which their defense tied for the league-lead with 20 interceptions.
Hopefully Pittsburgh can find a way to replace that void. A combination of multiple people will be tasked to do it. Peterson tops the list along with a collection of names like Chandon Sullivan, Damontae Kazee, and perhaps the likes of Duke Dawson and Elijah Riley. In particular, Kazee’s versatile skill set could be the way to go, though he’s not an outside corner like Sutton. But it’s not just about players who can do it but players who can be trusted to consistently be put in different roles and alignments. That takes time to build, the benefit of a guy like Sutton climbing the ladder from draft pick to starter.
For a team that needs to have a good defense, capable of keeping a lid on things and keeping scores down, I’d hate to get midway through the year wondering how the team could let Sutton go.
