4 reasons Steelers must sign Sutton before anyone else

The Steelers have to do everything they can to retain Sutton this coming offseason

With the Steelers offseason beginning to ramp up, there are a slew of pending free agents that have fans worrying about serious regression next year. While the team is likely to lose quite a few of these players such as JuJu Smith-Schuster, Bud Dupree, and Alejandro Villanueva, they would be foolish to allow Cameron Sutton to walk.

Here are the four reasons he needs to be the team’s top priority to resign.

His play

While the most obvious of reasons, the Steelers had some really solid play from the fourth-year cornerback this year. While he was technically a reserve, he was a starter on the field for dime defense. As well, he was the first player off the bench when the team needed a healthy body. This allowed him to play a total of 54 percent of the snaps this season, a career-high for him. He certainly showed up when he played, as the argument could be made that he was the Steelers’ top coverage corner.

While on defense, he was targeted a total of 56 times and only allowed 34 completions and one touchdown. This was good for a completion percentage allowed of 60.7 percent and a quarterback rating just below 80. All of those numbers are extremely good, especially when you consider how the Steelers used him. He played all over the defense: deep as a pseudo-safety, in the slot, and even as a boundary corner. Despite the various places he played, Sutton made the most of his opportunities. He had the best year in coverage of any of the Steelers corners and deserves to be paid for it.