Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Mike Hilton may be looking for a new deal, but he isn't about to hold out for it and is putting the team above his own personal needs and wants:
“That hasn’t even crossed my mind,” Hilton said earlier this week, according to Joe Rutter of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I’m here for the team. I’m going to be here and try to help the team win games.”
Hilton is coming off of a 2018 campaign in which he registered 57 tackles, a sack, an interception, a couple of fumble recoveries and eight passes defended.
The 25-year-old, who played his collegiate football at the University of Mississippi, went undrafted but landed with the Steelers' practice squad in 2016. Then, in 2017, he actually played in all 16 games and finished with an impressive 54 tackles, four sacks, a pair of picks, a forced fumble and six passes defended.
Still, in spite of the fact that Hilton is due for a raise, he has shown up to all of the Steelers' voluntary offseason workouts and was present at mandatory minicamp.
Offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva went through a similar situation in 2017 and did not hold out. Not long after training camp began, Pittsburgh awarded Villanueva with a four-year, $24 million deal:
“I actually had a couple conversations with Al,” Hilton said. “Just how he went about doing it and how he approached it. Having that conversation with him, he kind of broke it down to me and kind of gave me a blueprint of how to go about it.”
Hilton remains optimistic he can land an extension before training camp.
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