The Pittsburgh Steelers have a long list of unrestricted free agents this year, Cameron Sutton among them. After losing him in free agency in 2023, they brought him back last season under questionable circumstances. Given how things played out, Ray Fittipaldo argues the reunion ought to remain a brief one.
Appearing on the TroupCast last week with Ed Troup, Fittipaldo weighed in on some of the Steelers’ pending free agents. They have quite a few of them in the secondary, including Donte Jackson and Sutton as starters. The latter, at least, was a mistake, he believes, and they need to correct it.
“By the end of the season, [Cameron] Sutton was a starter. I don’t think you can bring him back the way he played”, Fittipaldo said.
Sutton signed a three-year contract with the Detroit Lions as an unrestricted free agent in 2023. He priced himself out of Pittsburgh at the time, but after assaulting his long-term partner and suffering the humiliation of an arrest, he found himself a street free agent. Down the road, the Steelers took the chance on him when nobody else was willing to touch him.
He spent the first half of the season serving an eight-game suspension, during which rookie undrafted free agent Beanie Bishop Jr. played. The young player started to come into his own, but after Sutton returned from suspension, the Steelers began playing him over Bishop.
In all, Sutton played 256 snaps over the final nine games. For comparison, Bishop played 194, including just 47 over the final four games. Bishop played one defensive snap in the Steelers’ playoff loss to Sutton’s 17. Sutton played over 100 snaps in the final two games of the regular season, though.
The issue, of course, isn’t playing time, but the quality of play. While Cameron Sutton may have made a play here and there, by and large he performed below the line. He also seemed to be involved in some of the Steelers’ communication issues late in the year when he began playing more snaps. While he has always drawn praise in that area, coming back from a months-long in-season suspension complicates matters.
Sutton re-signed with the Steelers on a Veteran Salary Benefit contract. The fact that we are talking about him in the context of a player they can’t re-sign speaks volumes. While that may say something about perceptions of his character, it is primarily rooted in his game tape.
The Steelers have had a revolving door at slot cornerback since allowing Mike Hilton to walk. They hoped that Sutton would close that gap for at least one year, but he merely contributed to it. Based on usage, it’s not clear that they have high hopes for Bishop and his four interceptions as the answer. But one way or another, they have to find a solution, and it won’t be Cameron Sutton.
