Is Beanie Bishop Jr. losing ground for the starting slot cornerback competition?
The Pittsburgh Steelers allowed rookie Beanie Bishop Jr. to run as the starting slot cornerback basically from the beginning of training camp until this week. That was a long trial run, but now they’re starting to explore their alternative options. This week seemingly belongs to Grayland Arnold, who despite having not played a great deal, is a veteran.
But what does any of this mean? How much did it mean that Bishop had been running first-team all this time? How much does it mean for Arnold to be getting those snaps now? The Steelers are obviously in an evaluation process, and they have gotten a long look at Bishop.
Pretty much all of the Steelers’ slot options are new to the team this year, so they have to get to know them. That is especially true for Beanie Bishop Jr., who is an unpedigreed, undersized rookie with limited big-school college experience.
Head coach Mike Tomlin keeps warning us not to read into this and that. He said not to read into Bishop working with the first-team units, and now he is saying that about Arnold. There is obviously a level of truth in his comments, but we can see that they are working through a process.
Arnold taking first-team reps now doesn’t mean that they are dissatisfied with Bishop. But it also doesn’t tell us that they are convinced Bishop is a legitimate option. The Steelers will need someone out on the field, however, so they’ll have to figure things out.
That doesn’t mean this can’t go into the regular season, which the Steelers have done before. When they lost Mike Hilton, they mixed and matched throughout the earlier portions of the season before answered presented themselves.
I still think Beanie Bishop Jr. will end up with the first crack at the job, but they may rotate Grayland Arnold in. Whoever does a better job at what the Steelers need them to do earns more snaps, and eventually all snaps.
The Steelers’ 2024 season is approaching, following another disappointing year that culminated in a first-round playoff loss. The only change-up in the annual formula lately is whether they exit early or miss the playoffs altogether. They have had a long offseason since the Buffalo Bills stamped them out of their misery back in January.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Does Russell Wilson make them a Super Bowl-caliber team, or are they wasting a year? How will the team continue to address the depth chart?
The Steelers are in training camp and the preseason and the 2024 season is coming into focus. They made numerous moves through signings and trade—and release. More than usual, they seemed comfortable creating holes, confident they can fill them. Some they managed to fill, others not so much. Now that we have so many pieces of the puzzle, however, we merely have a new set of questions to ask.
