What Are Steelers Doing with Cam Sutton? | Steelers Morning Rush

hey folks good morning and welcome to another episode of Steelers morning rush it is Friday August 16th we made it to the end of the week I'm Alan Saunders the Steelers are off today and uh so no practice so no Steelers practice report but we do come at you with an episode of Steelers morning rush and then later with another episode of Steelers afternoon Drive make sure you like subscribe hit that Bell for notifications here on the YouTube platform make sure you're not missing any of our great Steelers content from the whole team at Steelers now myself Smitty DB Chris Ward the whole kit in Kaboodle make sure you don't miss any of it uh today we're going to talk about something that a bunch of people have been asking me about and I think some people may be confused about and that's what the Steelers are doing with defensive back cam Sutton Sutton is suspended for the first eight games of the season but that suspension does not kick in until cut down day until the day the rosters are cut from 90 to 53 so from that day he will be suspended eight you know eight games eight weeks um and now Sutton is not suspended uh now Sutton has been a starting caliber player for the last few years he started an outside corner he was the number one corner for the Detroit Lions last year he started uh as the outside corner for the Steelers the year before that he also worked as the Steelers primary nickel Corner the year before that so he's got plenty of experience Sutton is a pretty good player but the Steelers haven't really been using him very much and so a lot of people have been asking what's going on where where is he what you know what is he doing so the gist of it is look the Steelers know they need a half a season of a replacement in the slot and they are doing everything they can to find who that is going to be so that means that guys like beanie Bishop grayan Arnold Thomas Graham have dominated the Reps in the slot beanie is getting an opportunity to be a starter as an undrafted rookie which is pretty unprecedented for the Steelers they want to give him as many reps as they can to make sure they feel comfortable with him in that role grayan Arnold was a guy who had been around and you was probably on the roster border they wanted they their intention was for this week to give grayan Arnold a lot of first team reps to see if he was going to make this team if they wanted to have a second slot corner on this team besides beanie because Sutton doesn't count towards the 53 man roster while he's suspended so on cutdown day the Steelers are going to put him on the suspended list and they're gonna have 54 players 55 you count call Hulk so then but Arnold got hurt so now I think you'll see Thomas Graham uh maybe like Zion Gilbert who's one of the new corners this time will play some slot I actually didn't get to watch a lot of the defense yesterday so I'm not quite sure where he lined up either way uh We've also seen the Steelers working in a lot of dime packages and that means they've been using Cory tce Darius rush and Ryan Watts as the dime Corner in addition to Bishop and Arnold and Graham as the nickel Corner again those guys guys are all not necessarily in the roster bubble but they're young players looking to prove their versatility to make this team to to to solidify spot on this team or to solidify a role and so sudden doesn't need to prove anything to anyone the Steelers know who he is he also doesn't really need to be ready for the season because he can't play for eight weeks halfway through his suspension he is able to start practicing with the team so we will see Sutton begin to practice with the team for about a month before he's able to return turn so he has in fact his suspension ends on the Steelers bye so he gets an entire another week before he gets to play a game that first one being in week I believe it's week nine at Washington so they don't really need cam suton to do anything right now it's basically the mindset it's like everybody else is in the third week of training camp entering preseason week two and cam Sutton may as well be at OTAs because he has a long way to go before they're going to need him to play so as a all they don't want him to take away reps from someone that they might want to get a look at whether it's Bishop who they are trying to groom for a starting role whether it's a guy like Arnold or Graham or Watts who was on the roster bubble whether it's a guy like rush or Trice who was trying to show versatility by being able to play in a different position all those guys are more important for reps than cam Sutton is and so he hasn't gotten any in fact I haven't seen him play hardly any nickel I haven't seen him play any dime I have seen him play a little bit outside corner and I've seen him play a lot of free safety now Sutton has played free safety before but I would consider that his third best position so why are the Steelers putting camut in a free safety well it's because their free safeties are M Fitzpatrick and Damonte KY and those guys don't need that many reps compared to all those young players battling for roster spots battling for starting jobs and trying to show versatility in their game that there's nobody that needs those reps at free safety more so you know there's Jaylen Elliott who's just signed back to the team he he's won free safety and then then you got Sutton there's there's not really anybody else that the Steelers are trying to get out there at that position in this game you know Mike Tomlin said we're goingon to have an exclusive mindset we're not going to hold anybody back in terms of looking for at somebody else and he he meant that largely but they are holding cam Sutton back so they look at everybody else because they don't need him right now and uh obviously this is you know what happens when you put yourself in the situation that Sutton has put himself in by you know getting arrested and charged with domestic violence and suspended for eight games so I think it makes sense that Sutton's back there it's just a way for him to get some work in and not take away from anything else the team is doing a lot of people also express the idea like well if he's gonna miss eight games and why bother to sign him and you know I think there's obviously you know a immoral argument to be made about why would you want to sign someone that had just been uh arrested and charged with what Sutton has been charged with but from a team's perspective man we've talked a lot about how difficult the back part of the schedule is and also do you remember what happened to the secondary last year when they had like seven guys hurt and they had to sign Eric row off the couch in like week 11 yeah it'd be pretty nice to have had a cam Sutton laying around in that circumstance and he's not costing the team a thing he's not going to earn salary while he's suspended so if let's just say if you know the Steelers go out there and beanie Bishop is looking great uh and and like a like a future long-term starter at the nickel position maybe cam Sutton won't take his job but he's still gonna be a very useful player he can play slot Corner DME he can play dime he can play outside corner he can play free safety he's a very valuable uh asset to a football team whether he's the starting slot or starting outside he also has like way more experience than any of the other backups we're talking about like Ryan Watts Cory T darus rush like you know he'd be the only experienced backup in the whole secondary hitting that Prime second half of the Season time when you need backups and so uh the the other part of this is you get somebody in there that's done it you know with respect to Thomas Graham and grayan Arnold even though they've been around the league uh cam Sutton has a lot greater Mastery of especially the Pittsburgh Steelers defense for someone like beanie Bishop to be able to ask questions and learn from while he's starting as an undrafted rookie again this is an extremely unprecedented situation that the Steelers are in in terms of starting a udfa player week one having someone to be able to be basically his personal coach now Sutton's not able to be in the stadium on game days while he's serving a suspension but that could go a long way so yeah I mean I think that's pretty much an update on what the Steelers have planned and are doing with Cam Sutton I know a lot of people you're going to see him in the preseason game but it's probably going to be like with the third team and playing in a position you don't ex suspect he normally plays and I think that's confused some people I hope I cleared up some of that confusion uh we will have more with myself Smitty and Derrick Bell on Steelers afternoon Drive later today and of course me and Smitty postgame after the Steelers and the Buffalo Bills kick off at 7 pm on Saturday from merser Stadium I'll be there and of course go to Steelers now.com read all of the written content and sign up for SN plus great deal only lasts one more day until Saturday an entire year for 10 bucks don't miss out on this it's a great deal all the best content for myself and DB and the rest of the team you don't want to miss it thanks for listening thanks for watching like subscribe hit that Bell for notifications on the YouTube channel and we'll see you with more the next time thanks for listening thanks for watching