Will the Pittsburgh Steelers ride with Beanie Bishop Jr. in the slot, confident in his abilities, or will they flinch? Right now, the Steelers have no qualified, experienced veteran candidates to defend in the slot, but that could change soon. In fact, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette thinks that it will before the season begins.
“Maybe you can get a veteran slot corner who can pick things up quickly and you go that route. If not, Beanie Bishop’s the guy”, he told Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller on 93.7 The Fan on Thursday. “There’s really no backup on the roster, other than Thomas Graham [Jr.], who’s on the practice squad. We’ll see where that goes. I do think they’re gonna add one here in the next couple days. Just sit tight. I think it’ll happen”.
A rookie college free agent, Beanie Bishop Jr. played his final college season at West Virginia in 2023, where he intercepted four passes and defended 20. While he is undersized and lacks the desired quality of competition, he has speed and athleticism. He also has pound-for-pound physicality, reasonable football intelligence, and plenty of heart.
After making some noise in OTAs, the Steelers promoted Bishop to first-team nickel in training camp. He stayed in that role for most of the duration, with injuries playing a factor. At one point they shuffled Grayland Arnold in with the starters before he went down.
Later, Bishop himself suffered an injury, which may still be an issue. Mike Tomlin held him out of the second preseason game and then only played him in the second half of the third, citing lack of sufficient practice time.
The end result is an unsatisfactory evaluation of the Steelers’ principal slot candidate. Many feel that Bishop did not show enough to leave the team comfortable with where things stand. His injury prevented him from putting more on tape, but that is out of anyone’s control.
The Steelers have had a revolving door at slot cornerback since parting with Mike Hilton. They had Arthur Maulet as the primary slot defender for two years and Chandon Sullivan last year. Neither of them was an ideal option, and they shifted others into the slot at times in certain situations.
Even though he fell out of the draft, it almost feels as though the Steelers were hoping Bishop would be the answer to their problems. They had other options, including Arnold and Graham, as mentioned, but also Josiah Scott. Even there, though, we’re talking about journeymen, and not even accomplished ones.
And then injuries began to dismantle the competition, prompting some bemused frustration from defensive coordinator Teryl Austin. He said it wouldn’t be hard to decide who the slot defender was because there was hardly anybody left.
Well, Bishop is sort of the last man standing for now, though they could always promote Graham. They have some slot-capable safeties, including Jalen Elliott, but, again, that’s not ideal. All told, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fittipaldo is a lot more accurate about this than about Brandon Aiyuk.
