Mike Hilton recently signed with the Bengals and Steven Nelson will be parting ways with the Steelers. Here are three cornerbacks who will have an increased role in 2021.
I don’t think anyone was surprised when Mike Hilton earned a sizable contract with the Cincinnati Bengals this offseason. Hilton was apparently counting down the days until free agency, and after playing for nearly the minimum salary for the Steelers over his first four years, Hilton seized an opportunity to cash in big with a four-year, $24 million deal. Recently, we learned that Steven Nelson will also be traded or cut as a way to keep JuJu Smith-Schuster around for one more season.
In a different year under different circumstances, perhaps Pittsburgh would have been able to keep both of these cornerbacks, but they apparently had other priorities in 2021. The Steelers have now lost six starting-level players this offseason (including Vince Williams who was recently let go), and they have their work cut out for them to fill these voids. Now that Hilton has departed and Nelson will soon leave the organization, three cornerbacks currently stand to see increased roles in 2021. Here’s what each player could offer Pittsburgh’s defense next year:
Cameron Sutton
Before Hilton was even signed by the Bengals and the news of Steven Nelson broke, the Steelers made sure to ink a deal with Cameron Sutton that would lock him up in black and gold for the next two seasons. We knew that Pittsburgh wouldn’t have the luxury of keeping both Hilton and Sutton, but quite honestly, I think they did the right thing.
While Hilton is unquestionably a better blitzer and run defender, he’s not as good in coverage (which is pretty important for cornerbacks). Sutton is also more position-flexible and is able to play both in the slot and on the outside. In a somewhat limited role, he managed to be the team’s highest-graded cornerback in each of the past two seasons, according to Pro Football Focus.
With Hilton gone, it looked like Sutton was set to slide into the nickel cornerback role in 2021 for the Steelers – a role that was previously occupied by Hilton. However, Pittsburgh could also use him outside the hashes now that Steven Nelson will no longer be with the team in 2021.
Justin Layne
This is a player I had extremely high hopes for coming out of Michigan State in 2019. The consensus thought on Justin Layne prior to the draft is that he was a late-first to the early-second-round player. However, the Steelers were somehow able to grab him with the second of their third-round picks. I guess now we are starting to see why.
I knew that Layne was raw and was going to need some time to get acclimated to the NFL game, but I wasn’t expecting as slow of a transition as we have witnessed to this point. As a former wide receiver at Michigan State, Layne is still relatively new to the cornerback position, but it seems like he should have been able to catch on by now.
Fortunately, Layne has at least been making his mark on special teams, as he was routinely the first gunner down the field in punt coverage. However, the Steelers are expecting more. With Layne’s freakish size, length, and athletic traits, we had hoped that he could develop into a starting outside cornerback, but the odds of that happening are growing smaller as time goes on. Fortunately for him, Nelson’s departure opens the door for added opportunity.
For Pittsburgh next year, Layne will retain his role as the team’s top gunner on special teams, and he will have a chance to compete for snaps on the outside at right cornerback. If he shows enough, perhaps Keith Butler could call promote him to a role as a starter at some point in the season, but with the limited progression we have seen, this seems somewhat unlikely.
James Pierre
I was shocked to see that James Pierre had surpassed Layne on the depth chart late in the season. The former Florida Atlantic cornerback was an undrafted free agent in Layne’s draft class in 2019, but by the end of his first season on an NFL roster with the Steelers, he was clearly starting to earn the trust of the coaching staff.
While Pierre has a solid frame at 6’0” and 183 pounds, he did not test well at all at the NFL Combine two years ago – running a 4.59 in the 40-yard dash and jumping just 33.5”. In addition, his 3-cone drill tested in just the 25th percentile among NFL cornerbacks, according to Mockdraftable.
While it remains to be seen as to what type of role Pierre will play with the Steelers in 2021, things were looking very encouraging for him by the end of last season. Because of his natural feel for the game, it’s entirely possible that he could get the nod in Cameron Sutton’s old role as the dime defender or even in the slot – depending on what the Steelers have planned for Sutton now that Hilton and Nelson will both be gone.
At this point, we can almost be certain that the Steelers will look to add cornerback help in the NFL Draft this year, and there are already a few players they seem to be eyeing at this position. As of now, however, all three of these Steelers cornerbacks seem to be in line for added work in 2021.