Cornerback used to be a strength for the Steelers, a position bolstered by two significant free agent signings and not through the NFL draft. In a matter of days, that all changed.
Just like that, the Steelers are faced with something of a predicament on the back end of a defense that has the second-most interceptions in the league since 2019.
One of their starting cornerbacks, Steven Nelson, is gone, having been released after he was told he was free to negotiate his own trade with another team.
Their slot corner, Mike Hilton, is gone, having signed a multi-year deal with division-rival Cincinnati Bengals that the Steelers were unwilling to offer to keep him. Instead, the Steelers gave that money to Cam Sutton, who signed a two-year, $9 million deal to become only the second drafted cornerback to get a second contract since Mike Tomlin became coach in 2007.
How did it all happen, and where do the Steelers go from here?
The simple answer to the former is money.
The Steelers knew (feared?) all along it would be very difficult to keep both Nelson, who was scheduled to count $14.3 million against the salary cap, and veteran Joe Haden, whose cap figure of $15,575,000 is second-highest on the team behind Ben Roethlisberger.
Because Nelson was in the final year of a three-year, $25.5 million contract he signed in 2019 — the largest ever awarded by the Steelers in free agency — they could not restructure his deal. The only option would have been to give him a new one-year contract with four voidable years to spread out his signing bonus — similar to what they did with Roethlisberger and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Even Sutton’s two-year deal has three voidable years.
But if the Steelers were going to do that, they would do it with Haden, who is also in the final year of his contract. The Steelers consider Haden their best cornerback.
Hilton’s departure was similar because it was about money — the amount the Steelers wouldn’t pay and the amount they thought he would get on the market as an unrestricted free agent.
The Steelers had never given Hilton anything more than a one-year deal since they initially signed him as a free agent in 2017. Last year, they upped his payout to $3.36 million, five times what he earned in 2019. Still, they were reluctant to give him a multi-year contract. Why?
Hilton was a one-dimensional cornerback — a terror along the line of scrimmage who couldn’t play as well in coverage as an outside or boundary cornerback. Conversely, Sutton can play both cornerbacks spots, in the slot in their nickel defense and as the dime backer. His versatility in a flattened salary cap world was considered more valuable, if not affordable. Meantime, Hilton signed a four-year, $24 million deal with the Bengals shortly after Sutton was retained.
So what happens without Nelson and Hilton?
Sutton provides both answers. As of right now, he will line up as the starting cornerback opposite Haden and will move into the slot when the Steelers go to their nickel package (five defensive backs). James Pierre, an undrafted rookie in 2020 who passed Justin Layne on the depth chart late in the season, will step in for Sutton on the outside. That move is not etched in stone, pending how Layne, a third-round choice in 2019, bounces back in training camp and preseason.
Beyond that, there are not many options.
It would be easy to suggest the Steelers can start to replenish the depth at the position in either free agency or the draft. However, because of some of their other free agent losses and cash-strapped decisions, the Steelers now find themselves with bigger and more urgent holes at nose tackle and inside linebacker than cornerback. And that’s not to diminish the need to improve depth at what they consider to be the most important position on the defense: outside linebacker.
Cornerback will have to get in line.
The Steelers won’t even have enough draft choices to waste one on a cornerback, not that they should anyway. After all, that’s what they have been — wasted picks. During his tenure, Tomlin has drafted 15 cornerbacks, six in the third round or higher, including Artie Burns in the first round in 2016. The only other corner to get a second contract other than Sutton was Cortez Allen, a fourth-round pick in 2011 who was benched and cut one year after signing a four-year, $24.6 million extension in 2014.
The cornerback position has changed not only drastically, but suddenly. What was a position of strength for the Steelers has, in a matter of days, now become an area of uncertainty.
Steelers cornerbacks
Joe Haden
Year acquired: 2017 free agent
School: Florida
Contract status: Signed through 2021 season
Cam Sutton
Year acquired: 2017 draft, third round
School: Tennessee
Contract status: Signed through 2022 season
Justin Layne
Year acquired: 2019 draft, third round
School: Michigan State
Contract status: Signed through 2022 season
James Pierre
Year acquired: 2020 undrafted free agent
School: Florida Atlantic
Contract status: Signed through 2022 season
Trevor Williams
Year acquired: 2021 free agent
School: Penn State
Contract status: Signed through 2021 season
NFL DRAFT PROSPECTS/CORNERBACK
Caleb Farley, Virginia Tech, Jr., 6-2, 207
Patrick Surtain II, Alabama, Jr., 6-2, 203
Jaycee Horn, South Carolina, Jr., 6-1, 205
Tyson Campbell, Georgia, Jr., 6-2, 185
Greg Newsome, Northwestern, Jr., 6-1, 190
Others: Asante Samuel Jr., Florida State, Jr., 5-10, 180; Aaron Robinson, Central Florida, Sr., 5-11, 193.
— Compiled by the Post-Gazette
First Published: March 26, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
