Did the Steelers fail Sutton Smith by keeping him at OLB?

The Steelers were high on Sutton Smith when they drafted him this April. However, did they fail one of the nations most productive defenders?

NFL cut day has come and past and the Steelers made a lot of moves that pleased the fans. They were able to keep preseason standouts Tuzar Skipper and Ulysees Gilbert.

However, one player we were hoping to see more of was 2019 6th round rookie, Sutton Smith. Smith missed much of training camp as well as the first two preseason games against the Buccaneers and Chiefs. He was recently cut by Pittsburgh in their effort to get down to 53 players.

Smith had a few impressive moments when he finally got on the field. Though much of the reason for his departure could be chalked up to his lack of availability, did the Steelers fail Sutton Smith?

The Northern Illinois product was one of the most productive college football players the NCAA has seen. No college football player had more pressures than Smith since 2017:

While Smith was fantastic in college, the Steelers should have been able to see that this wasn’t going to translate at the next level.

Smith is drastically undersized compared to NFL edge defenders. At the NFL Combine, Smith came in at just over 6 feet tall and weighed 233 pounds. His wingspan and arm length were in the 1st percentile of all NFL edge defenders, according to Mockdraftable.

There have been small players to succeed on the outside before. James Harrison was a shot, undersized outside linebacker who went on to be a multiple-time Pro Bowler and Defensive Player of the Year for the Steelers.

However, for every ‘James Harrison’ that works out, there are dozens of players who don’t.

Sutton Smith isn’t a bad athlete by any means. He ran a 4.69s 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, and his 6.75s 3-cone drill tested in the 99th percentile.

Instead of keeping him on the edge, Pittsburgh could have moved him inside from day one and transitioned him into maybe a Buck linebacker for the Steelers.

Obviously, it’s too late at this point and with the way Ulysees Gilbert played this preseason, it would have been hard for him to make the team anyway. It just makes you wonder if the outcome would have been different had the Steelers switched his position from the start.