Steelers Still Can’t Fill The Big Void Left By Mike Hilton Mistake

Entering the 2023 NFL season, the Pittsburgh Steelers still haven’t found an ideal replacement for former cornerback, Mike Hilton. It has been two full seasons since the Steelers had Hilton on their roster and yet the hole he left on the Steelers defense has never felt bigger.

Hilton left the team at the end of the 2020 season, shortly after the Steelers opted to sign Cameron Sutton instead.  A decision many maligned at the time, and is still a topic of debate for Steelers fans today. He was a lynch pin to the Steelers defense that had a big play ability that seemed as inevitable as death and taxes. Allowing only a 71.6% Passer Rating in his final year with the team.

Since his departure for the Cincinnati Bengals, the Steelers have spent the last couple years duct taping over the hole that he left with a combination of Sutton and Arthur Maulet. Those two players played the majority of the snaps at the slot position in 2022. 

That is no longer an option for the team as Sutton opted to sign with the Detroit Lions in 2023 and Maulet was recently released from the team. A departure that, based on Maulet’s own Instagram, didn’t seem amicable.

Maulet was never supposed to be a permanent replacement in the slot. The former undrafted free agent worked his way up the depth chart and made up for what he was lacking on defense by making a big impact on special teams. The Steelers will find someone who can take his special teams snaps, but losing Maulet & Sutton in one offseason exposes a larger void.  

The Steelers' Search for Replacements Continue

The Steelers brought in a lot of versatile new faces this offseason to hopefully fill some of these voids. The most notable being 32-year old Patrick Peterson, whom Mike Tomlin has praised for his versatility. Peterson has spent most of his years playing on the outside but may be asked to do a lot more for this defense than he ever had to for previous teams in his career.

Then, there’s the list of young guys on the team. Rookie cornerback, Joey Porter Jr. has a lot of traits to be desired, but never lined up in the slot in his college career and will likely spend most of his first season on the outside. Fellow rookie corner Cory Trice Jr. has a bit more versatility but asking him to step in at slot is a big ask for a seventh-rounder who spent his college career getting moved from corner to safety and then back to corner. 

Lastly, there’s third year safety, Tre Norwood, who showed potential in his rookie season, but struggled to make an impact in 2022 and received just a 35.3 overall grade from PFF. He has been mainly relegated to a special teams role. There’s also newly signed safety, Keanu Neal, who has experience in the slot, but will likely be filling in for the departure of Terrell Edmunds.

It is possible, and in fact probable, that the Steelers will have to once again use a combination of one or two or maybe all of these guys, to replace the Maulet/Sutton void that was filling the larger Hilton void. Here is to hoping the organization is able to find someone to permanently fill that hole, rather than continue to patch over it.

So what do you think #SteelersNation? Do you think the Steelers have done enough to fill the slot corner void left by Mike Hilton?  Who do you think will ultimately have the most snaps in that position? Let us know in the comments below!

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