Kovacevic: Personnel, performance, logic dictate Sutton goes inside

An old hockey coach once admonished me, and I'll never forget it: If your teammate's out of position and you slide over to cover for him, how many people do we have out of position now?

Ouch.

The logic doesn't apply across all sports or all situations, of course. But for the life of me, it pops into my head every time I try to follow the Steelers' thinking regarding their last remaining unsettled starting position.

Check that to the plural: It's positions.

Staying with college-style logic here, let's accept these three premises as ice-cold truths, if only for this exercise:

1. Cam Sutton's an exceptional cover man as a slot corner. It's what he's done most of his NFL career. It's what he does best.

2. James Pierre's ranged from solid to superb at right outside corner throughout camp. To boot, he was good enough to wrest the starting role from Justin Layne late in the 2020 season, in addition to contributing to the team's decision to make Steven Nelson a cap casualty.

3. No one's yet risen up to Mike Tomlin's challenge to become Mike Hilton 2.0. Not Antoine Brooks, who returned to practice here Wednesday after a couple weeks out. Not Arthur Maulet, who was nothing special with the Jets and shouldn't carry that expectation here. Tomlin and Keith Butler took turns in the past 72 hours going out of their way to express dissatisfaction with the position to date.

Play along, please, even if there isn't universal agreement on the three points, all right?

Now, Tomlin's apparent answer to this was, upon Brooks' return Wednesday, to stick Sutton in his presumed place for the same practice. Then, to practically crow about it afterward.

"Today was the first day we've put Cam Sutton in there," Tomlin told a group of us in a Heinz Field tunnel, even though I'm betting we all knew that, "so what you're looking at might not be the only candidates."

It was classic Tomlin message-sending. First Kevin Dotson, and now Brooks. The best ability is availability, blah blah, and that goes double for anyone who's younger.

Whatever. No issue with that. Where I'm lost is with the ultimate goal.

The coaches' hope, their plan plainly is to have Sutton start at right outside corner -- where he'd spent all of camp -- in the base defense, and then to slide to the inside on the sub-packages while Pierre takes over the outside. That keeps Sutton on the field most often, obviously.

But the biggest potential backfire there is that it's immensely challenging to do both. Joe Haden was asked to do both in his early days in Cleveland and has since acknowledged, including this summer, he had a hard time with it. Both Haden and Sutton speak confidently about Sutton's ability to pull it off, but it doesn't take the defensive mind of Dick LeBeau to determine that doing two very different roles would be tougher than doing one.

So what, other than keeping Sutton on the field, could be the motivation?

Is it his contract?

Or promises made at the time he signed?

Boy, I sure hope not. But it can't escape notice that, when the team signed Sutton for two years and $9 million in March, all concerned spoke openly about giving Sutton a shot at the outside, in part to prove his worth at a position that pays better now and into the future. Sutton himself said that he was told by coaches in his exit meetings after the 2020 season that he'd get "every chance" to play on the outside, adding that later, in contract talks, "Once we went throughout all the situations and understanding what was the best fit, it wasn’t hard to make the decision."

Well, that's swell. But the team comes first. The promise was granted, and the circumstance is what it is.

As Teryl Austin spoke around that same time of all these moving parts, "We want to give them as many opportunities to learn and see where they can go. If we don’t feel real comfortable with what we have, we’ll address changes at that time. I know Cam wouldn’t need a lot of reps to move inside and help us.” 

Yep. That might've begun Wednesday, just in time.

Let's usher that logic back into the equation: There are two positions in play, the nickel and right outside corner. Sutton's the best at nickel, even if he can't blitz and run-stop like Hilton. And Pierre's been the best on the outside. Yes, better than Sutton.

So put the two best guys at their two best positions and have them stay put.

This came from Butler earlier this week: "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. We’ve got to figure out who our best DBs are and try to put them on the field if we can."

That. Just do that.

• Brooks has a physical style, but he's got nowhere near Hilton's quickness, nor Hilton's natural nose for the ball. So this isn't just a matter of motivating the guy. He flat-out isn't what they want him to be.

And Maulet doesn't even belong in the dialogue.

• Out of curiosity alone: Why didn't the Steelers just keep the real Hilton rather than trying to craft a new one?

It couldn't be more obvious how highly they value him and, even though the Bengals' four-year, $24 million contract appears unsightly for someone so specialized, if that specialization's that big a component to your defensive playbook, that's not an unthinkable price to pay.

Hilton's 2021 cap hit in Cincinnati is $5.3 million. The Steelers' current cap space, per Spotrac, is $18.5 million. The savings from restructuring Stephon Tuitt's 2021 salary into a signing bonus this week was $6.3 million all by itself.

I get that it's never this cut and dried, in particular that more than half of the Steelers' current cap space gets committed to remaining roster signees, the practice squad and the $5 million or so Kevin Colbert prefers to carry into a regular season. But nothing about the above math makes Hilton's retention look like a retroactive impossibility.

Tuitt could've been restructured at any stage of this offseason. Same goes for the additional $1 million if/when the team does likewise with Chris Boswell. And why we're still talking about this in August is ... well, curious.

• Who thought Bud Dupree would be harder to replace than Hilton?

Come on, show of hands!

This one's staying down, my friends. Big believer in Alex Highsmith, and all he's done since is to be the camp's premier performer at any position.

• Melvin Ingram's been almost as good, as he exhibited again on this Wednesday. So dynamic, so very visible. Including when he moves across to the middle, something he did a lot with the Chargers. Good on Butler for utilizing that here.

What if outside linebacker, as a whole, is a step up from 2020?

No one would've predicted that.

• Awesome to see Chase Claypool walking freely on the sidelines, no boot, no cast, no nothing on the ankle he'd hurt Tuesday.

The breakout potential Highsmith represents for the defense is precisely what Claypool represent to the offense. Losing him for any significant span would've hurt so much in that respect alone. All breakout seasons begin with a rocket launch.

• That said, it couldn't have been a coincidence that James Washington poked above the pack with maybe his finest day of camp, highlighted by a leaping 5-yard touchdown grab of a Mason Rudolph pass, his arms outstretched over the head of Mark Gilbert on coverage.

Almost as impressive, at least from this perspective, he handled as well as could be expected his first interview session since the report that he'd approached the Steelers about seeking a trade.

"That’s a private conversation,” Washington began his reply when the subject was broached, essentially confirming it. He then added, “As far as being happy in Pittsburgh, I love it here. Who wouldn’t be happy playing football as their job? So, you know I come into work with a smile on my face. I’m eager to be here with the guys.”

That's how this'll go. 

Colbert's no fool. He knows he wouldn't get fair value for Washington, given that his lack of snaps -- ironically -- would work against that, and he knows Washington's got no leverage. There won't be any trade. Not in 2021.

And from the opposite side, Washington's no heel. We're talking about the anti-diva wide receiver, someone who for-real works on the family farm in the offseasons, who's the consummate pro.

"I'm just trying to do what I can," he'd say. "I want to show people that I can be available and make a play that you want me to make. Just do what I need to do."

Dude wants to play more. Which he should. End of drama.

• Encouraging to see the entire projected offensive line together for a second consecutive day, but equally discouraging to see Zach Banner continue to alternate at right tackle with Dan Moore. The latter's an insurance policy, sure, but between Devin Bush's blah showing so far and Banner's lack of availability, these knee surgeries are looming larger by the day.

• One thing to note from the above photo I snapped, and it's nothing more than an observation: Najee Harris spends as much time alone on a practice field as any player I've seen. Not sure what to make of it. He's amicable, approachable and all that, but once a drill's done, he'll kind of just veer off.

• I'd be remiss if I didn't share that the Steelers are offering free vaccines at Heinz Field in the two hours leading to the 7:30 p.m. kickoff of the Saturday preseason game against the Lions. Here are details.

Great idea and gesture by all involved.