Tim Benz: Robert Spillane, Cameron Sutton absorbing different tasks as they move up Steelers’ depth chart
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On their first day speaking as presumptive opening day starters for the Steelers, linebacker Robert Spillane and cornerback Cameron Sutton both showed a common trait that appealed to the franchise.
They’re both smart.
Football smart, sure. But also smart enough to get … it.
Smart enough to know their new jobs. Smart enough to know their success — or failure — will be intertwined even though they’ll be lining up a healthy distance away from one another on the field. Smart enough to know they’ll both be asked to do things they haven’t done very often during their respective times in Pittsburgh.
In the case of Spillane, it’s blitzing. Something Vince Williams did often as a Steeler. Something Williams did well, to the tune of eight sacks in 2017 and 20.5 total during his sturdy eight-year Steelers career.
“I think I had two assigned blitzes the whole season,” Spillane said of his 2020 campaign. “Being able to show that I can pass rush at a high ability is something I look forward to bringing to my game.”
As Spillane pointed out, though, one thing he did do a lot was “hug blitz.” That’s a reactionary blitz when Spillane rushes on a delay if the running back vacates and he’s not responsible for him in coverage. So the skill isn’t exactly foreign to him.
Spillane was retained as an exclusive rights player, presumably to take over Williams’ duties at inside linebacker, since the team released Williams in the early stages of free agency. Last year, Spillane filled the other inside linebacker job for much of 2020 after Devin Bush went down with an ACL tear.
But if you listen to Spillane talk, the Steelers may be asking someone else to take on that job since it sounds like the team wants to take advantage of his coverage skills. He may not be Derrick Brooks in his prime. But Williams was often seen as a liability in coverage, and Spillane may be better at that role.
“(Head Coach Mike) Tomlin said underneath coverage and hug blitzing were two of my best attributes as a player,” Spillane said. “He said, ‘I want you to excel even stronger in your best abilities (including covering receivers).’”
Somebody is going to have to blitz more often, though. Maybe it’s Bush. Because it can’t be Mike Hilton either.
The precocious nickel corner took his renowned blitz-timing skills to Cincinnati in free agency. And that job of providing extra pressure beyond the usual four-man rush is going to be all the more important this year, given that Bud Dupree also left town for Tennessee as an unrestricted free agent.
Here’s where Sutton could come into play. He has played the slot corner position when Hilton has been injured. And he was pretty good at it. But again, more from a coverage standpoint.
So much so that Sutton said Monday, the coaching staff is more likely leaning toward bumping him outside to replace Steven Nelson than it is inclined to have Sutton stay inside to fill the void created by Hilton’s absence.
“Going into this season, they were going to give me every opportunity to come in and play outside,” Sutton said Monday. “It’s something I knew I could do. It’s not something I couldn’t do before. Even in the midst of playing on the inside and moving around, career-wise, I’ve always been a stationary outside guy.”
That said, Sutton insists he’s capable and willing to play both roles, as Deshea Townsend and former teammate Willie Gay have done before him.
“I learned so much from (Gay),” Sutton said. “Just watching how he moves, how he carried himself in the building and out of the building.”
Therefore, Justin Layne is going to have to man the outside, while Sutton navigates the slot. Or Sutton is going to have to stay outside while relatively untested James Pierre assumes the nickel role.
“That’s not in my pay grade,” Sutton joked.
Neither is the draft. And while most in Pittsburgh are assuming the roles of Nelson, Hilton and Williams have been filled by Spillane and Sutton, that’s still two men for three spots. Neither of whom has ever started a full season in the NFL.
For as many holes that may exist on the Steelers offensive side of the ball, don’t rule out general manager Kevin Colbert throwing a high-round pick at either of these two positions.
Spillane and Sutton are written atop the depth chart as replacements for Williams and Nelson for now. But that’s not in permanent ink. And while both men appear to have full-time jobs, their versatility may still be their respective strongest suits.
Well, aside from the intelligence quotient I mentioned earlier. As neither player spoke as if anything was set in stone.
“I don’t pencil myself in anywhere,” Spillane said. “Nothing is guaranteed … I don’t expect anything to be given to me. And I don’t want anything given to me.”
Sutton expressed the same sentiment, knowing that he can build on the two-year contract he just signed.
“If I don’t take care of my business on the field, there is no opportunity for that,” Sutton said.
You may call that being humble more so than being smart. In this case, though, I’d argue the latter leads to the former.
Thankfully for the Steelers, at least they kept two guys who have buckets of both.