Mike Tomlin said last week that everybody in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ secondary should be on notice with a guy like Cam Sutton returning into the lineup. That is because he is capable of playing basically any position on the back end. He played 14 snaps in the slot Sunday, three at free safety, and one each as a wide corner and in the box as a safety.
Last week he hadn’t been added to the depth chart yet, but now his standing on the team is clear.
Sutton is the backup slot corner behind Beanie Bishop Jr. as well as the backup free safety behind Minkah Fitzpatrick, per the depth chart on the Steelers’ website.
Tomlin spoke glowingly of what Sutton can bring to the defense and mentioned how he has been capable of freeing up Fitzpatrick during his last stint with the team. The early snap count breakdown seems to confirm the point that Tomlin was making, as does the depth chart.
Sutton actually didn’t grade out very well from Pro Football Focus in his first game back from an eight-game suspension. They gave him a very poor grade of 27.4 overall, including a coverage grade of 27.9 His run defense was much better, but still not great, at 60.0. PFF charted three passes into his coverage with zero receptions, and he also did not log a single tackle.
A lot of people wondered whether Bishop would be relegated to the backup slot job with Sutton back in the mix. I think that is a possibility down the line, but he appears to be hanging onto the starting gig for now. Tomlin told the media last week that it wasn’t an either-or between Bishop and Sutton.
Bishop had 33 total snaps on defense compared to Sutton’s 19 in the Steelers’ 28-27 win over the Washington Commanders. I would expect that division of labor to even out a bit, but Sutton won’t exclusively be cutting into Bishop’s snaps as a multi-position player.
