Mike Hilton was sent on blitzes 54 times in 2019, the most of any cornerback in the NFL. At his current pace, he will blow that number away in 2020.
The Steelers have blitzed Hilton, their nickel cornerback, 19 times in their first two games, with the diminutive cornerback -- all 5-foot-9, 184 pounds of him -- getting home for two sacks. Hilton also has four pressures and a knockdown as the Steelers have had him attack the line of scrimmage even more than they did a year ago.
Why?
Well, he's good at it.
"It’s a lot of his innate ability and the (number of) times he’s done it," defensive coordinator Keith Butler said. "We had him do that quite a bit since he’s been here, so he has got a good feel for it, when he’s going."
To Butler's point, since becoming the Steelers' nickel cornerback in 2017, Hilton has blitzed 120 times in 33 career games, an average of almost four times per game. And Hilton's 8 1/2 sacks in that time are second most by a defensive back behind Jamal Adams. But Adams blitzes much more often. Adams has blitzed 180 times since the start of the 2017 season, including 21 times this season. He has 12 sacks during that time span. But if the two are compared in terms of successful blitzes per attempts, Hilton gets home once every 14.1 times per blitz, while Adams records a sack once every 15 times he comes.
Hilton's secret.
"It's all about film study," he told me late last season.
Hilton watches a lot of film of opponents, studying tendencies and learning little tips he can take into a game to read when the ball is going to be snapped. The result is Hilton often timing the snap of the ball perfectly and getting a running start into the backfield.
But it's also about feel for the game. And Hilton has plenty of that, as well. He's always aware of what's going on around him.
"It’s hard for me to describe unless you’ve been out on the field," Butler said. "There’s body language from different people. It may be the slot guy. It might be the offensive tackle. It might the running back in the back field. A lot of times people can’t help themselves and look at certain people or they look to where they are going or they look to see who they have to pick up and stuff like that. You can learn a lot if you watch film and you’ve done it a lot. He has experience of doing it a lot, so he’s pretty good with what he does."
MORE STEELERS
• Ben Roethlisberger talked openly this week about how his footwork has been off on some of his in-game throws and how that's affected the arm angle on those passes. "I do feel I got a little lazy with my feet, which then, in turn translated to a lazy arm," Roethlisberger said. "Some throws, I kind of dropped my elbow and it became more of a 3/4 release instead of over the top when I didn’t need to. There are obviously times when you need to change your release point. There were too many throws where I felt, looking back, that I need to get my feet better. That will then translate to the rest of the body and then I won’t be guiding the throws." Over the years, we haven't heard Roethlisberger get that introspective in terms of his play. He's always been a quarterback rare arm talent. And that's served him well. Wednesday, he spent the day working on his footwork in the pocket with quarterback coach Matt Canada, doing some things he hadn't really done since his early days in the NFL working with Mark Whipple, now the offensive coordinator at Pitt. -- Lolley
• The Steelers have some special playmakers on offense. How special? Through two weeks, they have four of the longest plays in the league thus far. Diontae Johnson's punt return that was called back because of a block in the back call on Cam Sutton is the longest play in the league this season. According to the NFL's NextGen stats, Johnson covered 121 yards on what turned out to be a 7-yard return after the penalty against the Broncos. Chase Claypool's 84-yard touchdown catch against the Broncos covered 92.6 yards, while James Conner's 59-yard run late in the fourth quarter against Denver saw him run 85.8 yards. But the craziest stat of all came from Johnson again in the game against the Broncos. He covered a ridiculous 77.3 yards on a 24-yard return on a free kick against Denver. -- Lolley
• There were 13 offensive holding penalties called in the NFL in Week 1. In Week 2, there were 32, meaning the league is averaging just over 1.4 holding penalties per game. In 2019, there were an average of 2.74 offensive holding penalties per game. It’s no wonder the NFL set a record through two weeks of 50.3 points per game. The Steelers’ opponents have not yet had a holding penalty called against them. This despite the fact the Steelers have perhaps the league’s best pass rush and are blitzing over 60 percent of the time. If you believe there hasn’t been holding happening against the Steelers thus far, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn for sale. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• The trade that sent right winger Patric Hornqvist to Florida for defenseman Mike Matheson and right winger Colton Sceviour Thursday means that most of the Penguins' third line from the end of the 2019-20 season is gone, since they won't be re-signing free agent Patrick Marleau, who played the left side. And while they seem confident that fourth-line center Teddy Blueger eventually will move into the middle of the No. 3 unit -- something that could happen as early as next season, if his offensive game continues to develop -- management apparently has no qualms about keeping Jared McCann at center there. "Right now, based on the players we have, (McCann) would be in the middle," Jim Rutherford said. "If something changes there, he'd be moved to the wing. He can play both positions." -- Dave Molinari
• Jason Karmanos' job description as assistant general manager changed when he was named to replace Mike Vellucci as GM of the Penguins' farm team in Wilkes-Barre.He will be spending less time on amateur scouting, something that had gotten a lot of attention from him during the past couple of years, and a lot more actually in Wilkes-Barre than he had previously. That, Karmanos said, is something he learned from observing how other Wilkes-Barre/Scranton GMs who were based in Pittsburgh, particularly Jason Botterill and Bill Guerin, handled the job. "I've watched the individuals who have had this role in recent years," he said. "I know it takes a significant amount of time being physically present in Wilkes-Barre to do that job correctly, so I plan on doing that. ... I definitely have made it a priority to get into Wilkes(-Barre), I would say, probably at least once a month." Part of the reason for making regular visits, he added, is that "there's more of a relationship you have as the GM, more interaction, potentially, between the GM and the players (there)." -- Molinari
• Penguins officials aren't ready to say that Josh Maniscalco, the free-agent defenseman from Arizona State who signed here this summer, will be one of the players they watch during trips to Wilkes-Barre, but they definitely are not penciling him in for a spot on the major-league roster yet, either. If he earns a spot during training camp, they'll be glad to have him, but they're not counting on him to have the meteoric rise to the NHL that John Marino did a year ago, when he was fresh out of Harvard. -- Molinari
• Adding Matheson and Sceviour to their payroll leaves the Penguins with 11 forwards, eight defensemen and backup goalie Casey DeSmith on the major-league roster and with $6,134,825 of salary-cap space available, according to CapFriendly.com. Goalies Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry and forwards Dominik Simon, Sam Lafferty and Anthony Angello are restricted free agents who must be re-signed, although the Penguins are expected to trade Murray. Rutherford is, of course, keenly aware of how tight his cap situation is. "I'm comfortable to the point that we control the fact that we can stay at compliance," he said. "But I think we're like two-thirds of the teams in the league. We were told last January that the cap might be ($86 million or $87 million). Then we were told it was only going to be $84 (million). Then, of course, with COVID, everything changed, and we have a flat cap this year and next year (of $81.5 million). It's difficult to manage, but at least we're in a position now that we can be cap-compliant, within our own control." -- Molinari
PIRATES
• The loss of three lives is the real tragedy in the accident involving Oneil Cruz in the Dominican. From a pure baseball standpoint, the reason he was sent home was because there wasn’t much opportunity for him to keep playing in America this year. Since he is part of the Pirates’ 40-man roster, he would not be allowed to participate in instructional leagues without special permission from the league, so it looked like he would play winter ball instead. The alternate training camp in Altoona ended last Thursday, but I was told Cruz left a few days earlier than that for personal reasons. -- Alex Stumpf
• Now that it appears that the first pick in the amateur draft will in fact go to the team with the worst record, the Pirates and Rangers are separated by just one game with a lot on the line. While Vanderbilt right-hander Kumar Rocker is the consensus top prospect at the moment, the difference between getting the first and second pick isn’t just for the the rights to Rocker, but extra spending money in the draft. Each draft pick comes with an allocated slot value, and that money is pooled and set as a cap. Going by 2019’s draft pool allocation, the difference between the first and second overall pick in the draft through the first 10 rounds is roughly $700,000, or roughly an additional 6 percent. By going under slot on one early pick, the Pirates could have the money to be aggressive through the rest of the draft with that extra cash available to spend. -- Stumpf
• Derek Shelton and Ben Cherington have said they have occasionally used the taxi squad as a way for major-league coaches to get eyes on players, even if they don't expect to activate them. During this final homestand, it was infielder Rodolfo Castro. Castro, 21, had a good season in Class A in 2019 and has an intriguing combination of speed and raw power, especially for a utility infielder. The catch is he is Rule 5 eligible this winter, so the Pirates will need to make a decision to either add him to the roster or risk losing him to another team. Shelton has been involved in baseball operations decisions since joining the club, so this will give him and the coaching staff more information to work with than just the video they have from the Altoona camp. -- Stumpf