One of the positions that went largely unaddressed by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2024 NFL Draft was cornerback, and specifically nickel corner. Since Mike Hilton left in free agency following the 2020 season, they’ve had Cam Sutton, who was versatile enough to play inside and out, and then Chandon Sullivan and Patrick Peterson mostly holding down the position in 2023 with Sutton in Detroit. Sutton was recently released by the Detroit Lions following some pretty serious legal issues with a domestic violence situation, but the potential felony charges were downgraded to a misdemeanor.
Head coach Mike Tomlin and GM Omar Khan met with Sutton recently, per Gerry Dulac, which has sparked questions over a potential reunion. Khan addressed the situation on WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann on Wednesday morning.
“You know, we’ll see. We did meet with Cam, I think it was a couple weeks ago,” Khan said. “It was more than just about the situation here, we just wanna see how he was doing. We spent six years with Cam, and they were a good six years with Cam. It was a good experience and obviously he had the opportunity to go to Detroit – had to make a business decision, but we’ll see.
“I will say this, I do like the depth we have at the position. You know, there’s some young guys in there that are gonna compete and have a lot of the traits to be really good nickel corners, and I really like that group…we’ll see what the future holds.”
It would be somewhat surprising if the Steelers bring back Sutton given what is still ongoing with his legal issues, and the league typically waits to hand down any potential discipline until the legal process is fully over. It certainly wasn’t a good look, made worse by him being on the run from the authorities for over a week.
But perhaps more interesting is Khan’s outlook on the nickel corner position. The Steelers’ two top guys from last season are not currently on the roster, though Peterson and Sullivan both remain free agents and could be brought back. He specifically highlighted West Virginia CB Beanie Bishop Jr, whom the team signed as an undrafted free agent after bringing him in for a pre-draft visit.
NFL.com analyst Chad Reuter called him a top free agent cornerback after the draft, so perhaps there is something there. It probably isn’t wise to count on an undrafted free agent as your nickel option though, at least not for Week 1.
“I can’t tell you how excited we were to have an opportunity to sign Beanie Bishop after the draft,” Khan said. “When he was here [for the pre-draft visit] we talked about our defense and how he would fit in and really felt like he was a guy that could come in here and compete…I think he’s gonna have a great opportunity at nickel to help us this year.”
In Bishop’s scouting report on the site, our Jim Hester noted that he is a secure tackler who you can depend on to make a full effort and rarely misses. That is definitely an important trait for the nickel position, and his coverage looked best when he played in the slot at WVU.
Still, you aren’t going to go into the season with Bishop as your only plan in the slot. Will the Steelers re-sign Peterson or Sullivan? Could they be considering Sutton? It seems like it is still a work in progress. There could also be a number of names that become available as teams prune down their rosters following the draft. It was on May 2 last year that the Steelers signed Sullivan, so a similar move could be coming later this week.
