Mike Tomlin has been known to fire off a warning shot to a young football player to light a fire under him when it comes to getting back onto the field or earning a position. Take his handling of Kevin Dotson when he returned from an injury last week as exhibit No. 1.
But that might not necessarily have been what Tomlin was attempting to do at the nickel cornerback position after Antoine Brooks, who is listed atop the team's depth chart there, returned to practice Wednesday here at Heinz Field for the first time in a little over a week.
The Steelers know Cam Sutton can play the slot, as well. In fact, it's where he's lined up for the majority of the defensive snaps he's played in the first four years of his career with the team.
But moving Sutton inside had always been considered the last resort, something the team knew it could do if Brooks or Arthur Maulet failed in their attempt to replace Mike Hilton, who left in the offseason to sign as a free agent with the Bengals.
Wednesday, despite the return of Brooks from his week-long absence, there was Sutton getting his first snaps of training camp in the slot.
"We've got guys working there," Tomlin said after a rain-drenched practice here, the last one that fans will be permitted to attend.
"We've got a lot of guys that haven't been working there. Today was the first day we've put Cam Sutton in there, so what you're looking at might not be the only candidates."
Ouch.
Brooks, a second-year safety, was the clear frontrunner at the spot early in camp. But the time he's missed allowed Maulet, the definition of a journeyman, at the spot. It also allowed second-year outside cornerback James Pierre to continue to have a strong training camp.
The top four players in the Steelers' secondary is settled. Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds will be the safeties. And Joe Haden and Sutton will be the starting cornerbacks in the base defense, with Sutton stepping in to fill the void left when Steven Nelson was released in the offseason.
But that fifth man? He remains an international man of mystery -- especially to national prognosticators, who have said the spot remains the Steelers' biggest weakness. One thing for certain, it's the only spot on the defense still up for grabs.
"As a secondary, we’re not too bad," Haden said. "James Pierre is balling out. Antoine Brooks is looking good at the nickel. We’ve got a couple of other guys we’re going to to try in there. I like Tre (Norwood) as the safety. He can play nickel, too. Our depth, they might not know the names as much, but we have dudes all over the place in the secondary."
It seems as if it will come down to Pierre vs. Brooks on the field. And at this point, it might be a no-contest given Brooks' lack of availability.
But Sutton in the slot would make the Steelers less physical than perhaps they want to be in their nickel defense. It's a reason why he never beat out Hilton for the starting nickel spot in previous years. Sutton was clearly the better coverage player, and at times, the Steelers would use him in that capacity over Hilton depending on the opponent. But the Steelers preferred to have a nickel corner who could both be more physical in run support and as a blitzer.
"We like (Brooks) and (Maulet) in terms of their physicality and stuff like that," defensive coordinator Keith Butler said. "We like the covering ability of (Sutton). (Pierre) has played well for us in this part of our season. Could he be part of the starting deal? We’ll see. We’ll see as we go, but that certainly is a possibility."
Like Brooks, Pierre is an unproven commodity. Brooks played 29 defensive snaps a year ago, while Pierre played 27. But he's had a strong training camp, using his length on the outside -- he's 6-foot-2 -- to help make up for a lack of straight-line speed. At the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, the former Florida Atlantic star ran a 4.59 40-yard dash.
Brooks is even a little bit slower, having run a 4.64-second 40 at the combine, but as a 5-foot-11 safety who weighed 220 pounds at the time, that wasn't all that unexpected. Brooks has shed 15 to 20 pounds this season in preparation for his move to the slot.
"I was always fast. But faster," he said of the results of the weight loss.
But the position isn't always about speed -- or even coverage ability.
Hilton ran in the 4.6s himself and wasn't great in coverage. But what he did do well was help out in the run game and blitz.
So, the answer for the Steelers would seem to be, can Brooks catch up to Pierre at this point, or will the team be forced to change things up from what it asks its nickel corner?
The Steelers would prefer to keep Sutton outside, but Pierre is forcing the issue.
"We know who Cam Sutton is. We know he is able to play that nickel," Haden told me. "I thought before Steve came, (Sutton) was going to be that outside guy. Steve was an amazing player, so we had Steve outside. If we needed Cam Sutton to do it, anytime I got hurt or Steve got hurt, he was right outside and played extremely well. I think he just wants to prove that he can be an outside corner CB1 on any NFL team."
Sutton will still bump inside when the Steelers go to their dime defense, but with the addition of linebacker Joe Schobert last week to pair with Devin Bush, the team clearly wants to play more nickel.
And there's still time for Brooks to make a case for him to be the nickel corner.
"I don’t know if you could say anybody’s locking that thing down. I’m not ready to say yet," Butler said. "It’s an important position for us.
"There’s still a competition there. We haven’t made up our minds in terms of who’s going to start there and stuff like that. It’s an important position for us, no doubt. We’ve got to figure out who our best DBs are and try to put them on the field if we can."
