Joe Haden Breaks Down The Steelers Secondary, How Cam Sutton Will Help

Pittsburgh spent their offseason churning through several cap casualties, mainly on the defensive side of the ball. But veteran defensive back Joe Haden isn’t concerned. In fact, he feels like re-signing Cam Sutton was a move that should help the secondary: “Cam Sutton is going to be able to thrive on the outside corner. He is a great nickel and outside guy. He is going to be a solid corner starter in the league,” per Steelers.com.

The Steelers are banking on Haden’s high praise of Sutton becoming a reality. Now that the Steelers have let DBs Mike Hilton and Stephen Nelson go, they will now have to count on Sutton to play a larger and more impactful role on the defense. Last season, he started just six games and was a versatile piece of the secondary, bouncing between the slot and outside.

It's that versatility that stands out most to Haden, who said: “It’s a different ball game on the inside. Those little slot receivers, the route trees are totally different. Just timing and stuff like that. Cam Sutton, that is what he does. He is a great inside and outside guy. I am more of an outside guy. Cam is able to play both at such a high level. He is able to go inside and outside. Cam is a Swiss Army knife. He can do a little bit of everything.”

Whether Sutton ultimately plays on the outside or in the slot remains to be seen. But one thing Haden is certain of is that he doesn’t want to log any significant snaps inside. He joked with Steelers.com: “I don’t want no parts of the slot. I can do it. The studying, it’s just a lot harder when you are playing the nickel back position. We have a lot of defenses. on the outside corner it’s more basic. On the inside there are so many different calls. It’s a lot. Cam did a really good job. He knows the entire defense. He knows what is going on. And being able to cover those smaller quicker dudes, you have to be very, very quick. That is just what he does.”

If Sutton succeeds in the slot, count Haden amongst the Pittsburghers who’ll be cracking open a celebratory Iron City brew.