Circling back to the Pittsburgh Steelers roster this week was CB Cameron Sutton, strengthening the position room from an on-field standpoint. His services were available due to a domestic violence felony reduced to misdemeanor. That of course muddies what is in store for his future.
My goal today is to see how Sutton fared from a coverage stats standpoint in 2023 with the Detroit Lions after spending his first six seasons with Pittsburgh. Using data from Sports Info Solutions (SIS), I will focus on Sutton while including current and former Steelers visually for comparative context.
Let’s dive in. Here’s 2023 coverage snaps and targets for quantity context:
Sutton led the players we’re focused on with 650 coverage snaps, which was fourth-most in the NFL last season (123 qualifiers). He was also targeted often at 70 times, which tied for 16th-most with a former Steeler in Levi Wallace.
Outside of Joey Porter Jr., the CB room looks quite different with the additions of Sutton and Donte Jackson. They all landed on the top right of the chart, and we get important context to how that compared to Patrick Peterson, Wallace, and Chandon Sullivan with Pittsburgh in 2023.
Here are snap alignments for the players in our sights, from Pro Football Focus (PFF):
Here we see that Sutton was used primarily in wide alignment with Detroit last season. That was different than the majority of his career, where Pittsburgh leaned on his football IQ and ability to move around the formation.
The slot CB position was one of the biggest remaining needs for Pittsburgh, and if things pan out with Sutton, would likely be the primary avenue to playing time.
Other important context is man versus zone, and here are those rates:
Sutton played plenty of each coverage scheme, over 30-percent in man, as opposed to Jackson who had an extreme split with far more zone coverage in Carolina. Sutton also played 58.6-percent in zone, near the rate of Sullivan, who played the most slot snaps for the Steelers last year.
Now, let’s begin to examine the quality of play with completion percentage and deserved catch rate, which is the number of completions and drops divided by the number of catchable targets and passes defensed:
Unfortunately, Sutton was well below-average in catch rates for 2023. His 61.4 completion rate allowed tied for a lowly 95th, while an 83.3 deserved catch percentage tied for an even worse 101st out of the 123 qualifying corners. While his time with the Lions didn’t go well overall, this was still much worse than expected going into the study.
Next, let’s look at the yardage of the targets with yards per attempt and yards per game:
The bad news continues in regards to Sutton’s 2023 campaign, well below-average and a far cry from Pittsburgh’s corners in 2023, who weren’t all sunshine and rainbows either (outside of Porter).
That gives extreme context to Sutton, who allowed 10.3 yards per attempt that tied for fifth-worst last season (117th), and 42.2 yards per game which ranked 113th. SIS also has him at 718 yards allowed in 2023, which was second-most in the NFL last season. Yikes.
Another stat that is used often to evaluate defenders in coverage is QBR Against (factors in completions, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions), so let’s see how they fare along with Wins Above Replacement (WAR) which is a points above replacement scale conversion that is based on the scoring environment:
Again, Sutton lands below-average in both data points, but a bit closer to the mean. His 103.2 QBR Against ranked 100th, while his 0.0 wins above replacement tied for 85th with several other corners.
Landing closer to Sullivan and Wallace, as opposed to Porter’s impressive rookie season overall, again sheds unfortunate recent light to Sutton’s play in coverage.
To close, let’s look at SIS’s Boom and Bust percentages to see the rates of big plays allowed or made in coverage.
- Boom % = The percentage of dropbacks that resulted in an EPA of 1 or more (a very successful play for the offense)
- Bust % = The percentage of dropbacks that resulted in an EPA of -1 of less (a very unsuccessful play for the offense)
You guessed it, below the mean in both data points for Sutton. Particularly a 37.1 boom rate, eighth-worst at allowing big offensive plays among qualifiers in 2023. Here are some specific totals on Sutton for more context:
70 targets, 54 catchable, 43 completions, 718 yards, four TDs, one interception, two dropped interceptions, five passes defensed, and three defensive pass interferences.
The aforementioned second-most yards allowed and four touchdowns stick out, the latter tying for 16th-most. For comparison, Porter had no TDs allowed, while Jackson had three. Negative plays, like pass interferences are also discouraging (tying for 16th-most as well). Missed opportunities on two dropped interceptions (T-27th most) could have swayed things, but unfortunately compounded the story of Sutton’s 2023 season.
So, here’s a wrap up table of the data and conclusion:
This visual really encapsulates the coverage struggles for Sutton in 2023 with Detroit. He was durable and utilized a ton, with the fourth-most coverage snaps at the position, and tied for the 16th-most targeted as well.
The rest of the data is hard to swallow though, being below-average or towards the bottom of the league in every other aspect of the study. While there are several contributing factors, Porter and a former Steeler in Peterson comfortably ranked better than Sutton in that data.
That is notable considering there’s still a chance Peterson could return to Pittsburgh, which seemingly diminished with the Sutton addition. There is the other side of the coin, if things go south from an off-field standpoint, or continued poor play (less expected), that door could re-open in a hurry.
Sutton played plenty of man and zone coverage, but was primarily an outside corner, which would likely be split across the formation more in Pittsburgh when he was successful overall. That is a likely calculation for Pittsburgh, which knock on wood comes to fruition and allows Sutton to put his rough time away from the Steelers behind him.
Obviously hoping for the best with Sutton. Pittsburgh was likely comfortable with his situation or they wouldn’t have brought him back. The financial risk is minimal, so that’s a plus if Sutton doesn’t return to a player that many on our Steelers Depot crew vouched for getting a contract extension not that long ago.
Obviously, if he can return to that form, Pittsburgh has just filled the most glaring hole on their defense that is looking strong for 2024.
