The Pittsburgh Steelers are sitting at the doorstep of yet another presumed tumultuous off-season. We’ve already seen general manager, Omar Khan, head coach, Mike Tomlin, and other members of the front office make the trip to Mobile, Alabama for the annual Senior Bowl to get early looks at the invited college seniors. In addition, the East West Shrine Game is also taking part this week for even more draft prospecting efforts. But amidst of the practices, games, combine, and looming draft, the Steelers have a laundry list of current inventory they need to evaluate first.
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Names on that list of players who are set to hit the free agency market include the likes of Larry Ogunjobi, Devin Bush, Robert Spillane, Terrell Edmunds, and Malik Reed. All of those names saw themselves float towards the top of the depth chart at different parts of the season and could be considered as higher priority than others. But with that said, there is one major staple on defense that has to get re-signed for 2023. So much so, we’re already seeing his name on league wish lists come this off-season’s shopping period.
The Steelers consider Cam Sutton a must-sign contributor for the defense in 2023
Since being drafted 94th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft, the Steelers have received a great return on investment in Sutton. He’s shown tremendous versatility by being able to play both inside and outside and set a personal takeaway record in 2022 with three interceptions. In addition, he tallied 15 pass deflections. Steelers’ president, Art Rooney II knows they’ve been able to receive solid levels of play from Sutton at a relative discount after his extension two years ago. In a recent interview with Jenna Harner, Rooney II opened up about the emphasis they’re putting on recapturing Sutton, and other key talent, heading into the off-season:
“We like to bring guys back if we can. We’ve spent time with those guys, particularly Cam Sutton. You know we drafted Cam and he’s developed as a Steeler, and I think he truly wants to come back. So, it’s great to be able to get those kind of guys back and obviously depends a little bit on what the market says and what opportunities he might have, and how we make all these things fit within our salary cap constraints. But clearly, there’s some guys that are veteran guys that we’d like to bring back.”
Credit: Steelers.com
It is obvious Sutton is going to be carrying an increased price tag in 2023. He signed a two-year extension in March of 2021 to the tune of $9 million, but he can expect a raise this go-around. Fortunately for the Steelers, the NFL announced a increased salary cap for 2023 coming in at $224.8 million per team. This is up $16.6 million from last year’s cap of $208.2 million. Earlier this month, Pro Football Focus (PFF) mapped out Sutton as having averaged six yards per completion with a 19 percent completion rate in 2022. As far as market value goes, Brad Spielberger of PFF shed some light on his evaluation of Sutton on 93.7 The Fan Morning Show earlier in January:
“It is not a super strong cornerback class,” he said. “But at the end of the day, he’s a good not great corner, and so I don’t think teams are going to say, ‘Well, we have to get someone, so we missed out on Jamel Dean from Tampa, so let’s just go crazy on Cam Sutton.’ I think Dean is the only guy I think sees getting a substantial multi-year deal as a young player that teams view as a borderline number one or very, very good number two… from there on, I think the rest of the guys are mid-market.”
Spielberger went on to predict what he sees Sutton getting offered this year:
“I don’t think you’re going to get some crazy deal of $10-plus million. I think, like you said, it’s going to be right below that number on maybe a three-year deal.”
Peter Diana/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On the heels of PFF’s free agency rankings, ESPN released their own earlier this week. Squeezed in between former-Steeler JuJu Smith-Schuster at 27th and Evan Engram at 29th, we find Sutton at the 28th best free agent available in this class. As Spielberger alluded, this class isn’t deep with talent at the cornerback position, which may bode well for Sutton. However, he had mentioned a few weeks ago his desire to come back to Pittsburgh, which could result in a hometown discount. ESPN’s Brooke Pryor echoed Rooney II’s efforts for the Steelers to res-sign Sutton:
"The Steelers have a handful of additional free agents who will be key to retain, including defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi and safety Terrell Edmunds, but Sutton's versatility and Pittsburgh's lack of depth at corner make him the most crucial one. Sutton's 15 passes defended was tied for sixth in the league, and names ahead of him on that list include luminaries such as Jalen Ramsey, Sauce Gardner and Tariq Woolen. Sutton's versatility, fit and value to the defense will mean an upgrade of the two-year, $9 million contract he signed in March 2021."
Sutton was a clear defensive staple in 2022. He started 16 games but saw action in all 17 games of the season. In 12 of those games, Sutton played 100 percent of the defensive snaps and contributed on special teams each game as well. Sutton has only known the Steelers’ zone scheme and has been able to tailor his skillset to best align with what he’s asked to do on defense.
With all things considered and listening to Rooney II's remarks combined with Spielberger's comments, I'd expect an extension of somewhere around a three to four year, $24-$28 million type of deal in the spring. At any rate, we should expect the Steelers to take full advantage of that increased salary cap and make sure Sutton stays in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future.
Do you want Sutton to stay in Pittsburgh? What type of deal do you think he will get? Let us know in the comments below!
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