The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 offseason practices concluded in the middle of June and next up is the team’s annual training camp, which should get underway in the latter part of July at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Ahead of Steelers training camp starting this summer, we will preview the team’s offseason roster three players at a time as part of a multi-post series.
This Steelers roster preview, which includes outlooks for every player, will be done alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow. This series figures to exceed 90 players this year as the team can carry 91 players in total during the offseason due to the allowance of one international player designation.
The next three players we will preview ahead of Steelers 2024 training camp are Beanie Bishop Jr., Chris Boswell and Marquez Callaway.
CB Beanie Bishop Jr.: The Steelers only signed five undrafted free agents this year. Bishop, a West Virginia product via Minnesota and Western Kentucky, was one of them. Not only that, but Bishop was also given a $25,000 signing bonus as part of his deal. While Bishop is a bit undersized at 5091, his college tape showed him to be a very physical player. Last season at West Virginia, Bishop registered 67 total tackles to go along with 20 passes defensed and 4 interceptions.
In his five previous college seasons, four of which came at Western Kentucky, Bishop registered a total of 79 tackles, 1 sack, 3 interceptions, 10 passes defensed and a forced fumble. He mostly played as an outside cornerback throughout his college career, but he did log several snaps in the slot as well. Bishop also played quite a bit on special teams during his college career, which included him returning some punts and kickoffs.
Outlook: Bishop’s lack of overall length will likely result in him competing as a slot cornerback with the Steelers this summer. The Steelers do have other slot cornerback candidates on their roster, however, with one of those players being veteran Cameron Sutton. The fact that Bishop played a lot on the outside in college at least gives him some position flexibility.
Additionally, Bishop’s special teams resume from his college career should help 53-man roster cause as a rookie. While Bishop is not guaranteed to make the Steelers’ 53-man roster after the preseason concludes, one must really like his chances of doing so just the same. Of the five undrafted free agents originally signed by the Steelers this year, Bishop has the best shot at making the Week 1 roster. He should be fun to watch during training camp and the preseason. It would be great to see Bishop ultimately become the Steelers’ future starting slot cornerback.
K Chris Boswell: While Boswell didn’t have a particularly good showing in 2022, he certainly rebounded from it in 2023. The Steelers’ kicker since 2015 made 30 of his 32 field goal attempts in 2023, in addition to 29 of his 30 extra-point tries. Boswell made six of the seven attempts that he had from 50 yards out or greater. He also registered a career-best 63.6 yards per kickoff average in 2023 on 76 total attempts, and 55 of those kickoffs resulted in touchbacks. At 32 years of age, that was great to see. Unlike in 2022, Boswell avoided injuries in 2023 as he played in every game for the Steelers.
Outlook: Ahead of training camp starting, there are currently no real worries about Boswell, especially considering the way he rebounded in 2023 from his tough 2022 season. If he stays healthy again, there’s no real reason to think that Boswell won’t be dependable, especially from 50 yards out or more.
Boswell will, however, have a new holder in 2024 in veteran punter Cameron Johnston. Even so, those two should have figured each other out by the start of the regular season. It will be interesting to see how the NFL’s new kickoff rule impacts Boswell in that phase of his game as the Steelers obviously won’t want him involved in many tackles, if at all possible.
WR Marquez Callaway: The Steelers signed Callaway, a former undrafted free agent out of Tennessee in 2020, to a Reserve/Futures contract in January. After starting his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, Callaway has since spent brief time with the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders. He did, however, land back with the Saints in 2023 as a practice squad player. Callaway appeared in three games with the Saints in 2023 but failed to register any stats in the 28 offensive plays he was on the field.
Since entering the NFL, Callaway has played in 45 regular season games with 17 total starts. He has registered 83 career receptions for 1,069 yards and 7 touchdowns, and also returned 14 punts for 149 yards and four kickoffs for 94 yards. In total, Callaway has 111 special teams snaps to his credit. Most of Callaway’s snaps in the NFL have come as an outside wide receiver. He has also played some in the slot since entering the NFL.
Outlook: The Steelers have a lot of questions to answer concerning their wide receiver depth chart entering training camp this year. They also have a lot of castoff wide receivers with some NFL playing experience battling for roster spots. Because of that, Callaway should get every opportunity to make the team’s 53-man roster this summer. New Steelers wide receiver coach Zach Azzanni is very familiar with Callaway as he recruited the player at Tennessee in 2016.
Even so, that familiarity does not guarantee Callaway anything this summer. Callaway has made some big plays since entering the NFL. However, he’s lacked consistency in his play. As part of improving his overall play, Callaway needs to severely sharpen up his special teams abilities this summer as doing so will surely help his roster cause. The fact that Callaway failed to play much in 2023 is a cause for an alarm and that means that this upcoming training camp with the Steelers could decide his NFL fate moving forward. Overall, Callaway is probably a longshot to make the Steelers 53-man roster out of training camp. Realistically, he could be battling for a practice squad spot late in the summer.
Previous Posts In This Series:
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Montravius Adams, Kyle Allen, Spencer Anderson
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Grayland Arnold, Calvin Austin III, Anthony Averett
90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Kalon Barnes, Tyler Beach, Keeanu Benton
