Steelers Losing Cam Sutton In Free Agency Ranks Incredibly High In Bizarre CBS Top 10 Moves Of The Offseason

The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a busy offseason. The organization has had some real victories signing Patrick Peterson and Isaac Seumalo. Peterson is a future Hall of Fame cornerback and Seumalo is a top-five guard in the NFL. They have signed solid inside linebackers who are proven tacklers in Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts and brought in an important depth piece in Nate Herbig to shore up the offensive line.

CBS Sports Cody Benjamin ranked the top 10 moves of the offseason so far in 2023 and none of the Steelers additions made the list. There have been some big moves this offseason and the Steelers indirectly made the list not for who they signed, but for who they lost. Benjamin described the loss of Cam Sutton to the Detroit Lions as follows:

“If there's one thing Detroit needed this offseason, it was corner help.” Benjamin wrote. “Rather than excitedly overpay for name recognition, or opt for an aging placeholder, they played it smart for the short and long term, managing to add both one of the top veteran cover men available and an ascending prospect. All at a modest $11M annual price tag, tied for just the 17th-largest at the position.”

The Steelers have employed Sutton for his entire 84-game career in the NFL. They drafted him in the third round of the 2017 draft that left the Steelers with TJ Watt just six seasons later after losing Sutton to the Lions. Sutton signed a two-year $9 million contract heading into his fifth season in the NFL and finally became a starter with the Steelers in 2021. He is a smart, hard-nosed, versatile defensive back who is not the 17th-best cornerback in the NFL. 

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Steelers fans sometimes overreact and are overprotective of their players. We are fans and we love who we love. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you defended Chase Claypool far longer than he should have been or if you thought last year Devin Bush Jr was going to turn a corner. Sutton was well-liked by fans but even if he resigned, the Steelers were still looking for their number-one corner in 2023.

 Just because you are at the top of the depth chart in Pittsburgh doesn’t make you elite. Sutton is very good, and the Steelers will miss him in their scheme. The Lions overpaid for a player that is not an ideal fit in their defense and corners don’t start ascending at 28, they are at best still at their peak and much more likely to decline. 

Recency bias has a tight grip on CBS reporting and somehow the Detroit Lions are more astute than the Pittsburgh Steelers at valuing a player they saw every day for six years. The Steelers have had nine losing seasons since they hired Chuck Noll. The Detroit Lions have not won a championship since the 1950s but somehow CBS makes the argument. Sutton’s signing is a top 10 story but incredibly Benjamin ranks it as the second-best move of the offseason behind the New York Jets getting Aaron Rodgers and just before the Chicago Bears getting DJ Moore. The Sutton signing isn’t even the best move for a cornerback in the 2023 offseason. 

Jalen Ramsey, who by any estimation is a top-five cornerback in the NFL was traded by the Los Angeles Rams, the 2021 Super Bowl Champions to the Miami Dolphins. The same Dolphins who had to resort to Skylar Thompson in the 2022 playoffs. The Dolphins nearly upset the Buffalo Bills with a third-string rookie quarterback and now may have the best cornerback tandem in the NFL with Ramsey and Xavien Howard. That is two Pro Bowlers teaming up but somehow, Sutton to Detroit is a bigger story? 

“Ramsey isn't necessarily the shutdown defender he was when he first joined and cashed in with the Rams,” Benjamin observed about the move. “But his standard has been so high that his recent downturn, going on 29, is probably exaggerated. All 32 teams would sign up for his tenacity.”

So, to be clear, the former number five pick overall in the 2016 draft, the six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro is also 28 years old according to Pro Football Reference. The Super Bowl Champion cornerback is a grand total of 126 days older than Sutton and is declining according to Benjamin. Meanwhile, the former Steelers cornerback who has spent two of six seasons in the NFL as a starter is ascending. Benjamin’s NFL Sunday Ticket package might only include games from the NFC North because this makes little sense. 

The list doesn’t even mention the trade of the number one pick overall by the Chicago Bears as a top 10 story. It does take a small snippet of the trade, but Benjamin ignores the Panthers’ move to get the number one pick overall, it isn't even mentioned as the reason Moore ended up in Chicago. The Dolphins’ hiring of Vic Fangio ranks higher at seventh than the trade for the number one overall draft pick, and Orlando Brown Jr the best tackle available, signing with the Cincinnati Bengals for half of what the Kansas City Chiefs signed offered barely makes the list at number nine. 

Sutton played an important role for the Steelers and the organization. And the fan base will wish him well in his career. But if we are being honest as fans, Sutton is never going to make a Pro Bowl as anything other than an alternate. He is a fantastic addition to the Lions but it just is not the second biggest story in the 2023 NFL offseason outside of Pittsburgh and Detroit. 

What do you think Steeler Nation? The loss of Sutton is going to be felt in Pittsburgh but is it the second-biggest story in the NFL? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.

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