The Pittsburgh Steelers have a type when it comes to the slot cornerback position: small, feisty, overly physical. Rookie undrafted free agent Beanie Bishop Jr. is aiming to be the next in line at the position for the Black and Gold.
Through two days of training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Bishop is seeing a lot of work in the slot with the first-team defense.
While head coach Mike Tomlin stated to reporters Friday that he’d “be careful” reading too much into that just yet, it’s hard not to. The Steelers have a glaring need in the slot, especially with veteran cornerback Cameron Sutton — signed in the final week of OTAs this offseason — facing an 8-game suspension for his March arrest in Florida.
To Bishop’s credit, he’s taking advantage of the opportunity early on and is focused on flying around making plays. He is aiming to be that next “angry little person” that Tomlin has talked about at the slot cornerback position, especially after the Steelers showed interest early in Bishop in the pre-draft process.
“It [the interest from the Steelers] was something that they told me, and I kind of got wind of it kind of early, that they were in search for a nickel and that they feel that I could fulfill that role with my tackling abilities and being able to cover as well,” Bishop said to reporters Friday following the second day of practice. “And you know, like Coach Tomlin says, a little person being like little angry people, running around.”
Names like Mike Hilton and Arthur Maulet have fit that mold for the Steelers in the past. Maulet, in fact, drew that “angry little people” label from Tomlin during the 2022 season.
Hilton spent four seasons with the Steelers from 2017-2020. He was arguably the best slot cornerback in football, coming downhill with speed and physicality to give the Steelers another box defender while being able to play in nickel and dime. He was a huge component of the defense.
Same for Maulet, who spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons with the Steelers before being surprisingly released ahead of the 2023 season, landing with the Ravens.
“He’s a run-down nickel. He’s a good blitzer. He’s a good tackler,” Tomlin stated to reporters back in the 2022 season about Maulet. “He brings a demeanor for a small guy that’s kind of reflective of the dominant nickels that play. All the nickels that are dominant ones are angry little people. They don’t stay blocked. They don’t get blocked. They blitz extremely hard and well, they tackle big people. They play with an edge, and he fits that mold.”
Bishop is vying to fit that mold for the Steelers.
He checks the box of being undersized and being dominant, that’s for sure.
Beanie Bishop measured in at 5091 and 182 pounds at the 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl in Dallas. Despite the smaller size, Bishop had a dominant 2023 season. He recorded 20 pass breakups as he was constantly around the football and really emerged as a leader at West Virginia.
Then, he turned heads at the East-West Shrine Bowl, ultimately earning a shot with the Steelers as a UDFA. He picked Pittsburgh after receiving interest early in the process due to the need in the slot, and how he could see himself fitting in the mold of a Hilton or a Maulet.
Being that angry little person is something that Beanie Bishop can easily tap into due to his upbringing and the obstacles he’s had to overcome.
“Putting a helmet on. That’s all that it takes,” Bishop said on how he taps into being that angry little person. “Putting a helmet on and just going back to the kind of ways that I grew up and some of the circumstances that I went through when I was younger and things like that. So I’ll just always get into that mindset. Like, you can’t go back to that. So, I try to be angry.”
We’ll see if that mindset can pay off when the pads come on for the undrafted rookie as he makes a push for a roster spot and a role defensively.
If the first two days of camp are any indication, though, he’s in good shape and is taking advantage of his opportunity. He’s lining himself up to be the next “angry little person” in line for the Steelers at the slot cornerback position.
