There has been a revolving door at slot corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers over the past few seasons. This year, the best they could do coming out of training camp was undrafted rookie Beanie Bishop Jr. While he has flashed some positive things that suggest he could develop into a strong slot option in the future, he just isn’t ready right now.
Former NFL GM Doug Whaley spoke about this via Black & Gold Zone postgame show on WPXI last night.
“Beanie Bishop, right now he is struggling and there’s that saying in football, ‘You’re either coaching it or allowing it.’ I’m assuming next weekend we’re going to see a lot of different coverages,” Whaley said. “If Beanie Bishop’s in there, he’s going to have to be in more of a disciplined zone coverage than man-to-man, or if not they may have to insert someone to take his place because right now, he’s a liability and I could see other quarterbacks saying, ‘Check, check, check. We’re going to [No.] 31.’ ”
Before Week 1, when it became clear that Bishop was the starting slot corner, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said that if Bishop didn’t handle the test, then he could expect it to keep coming back to him. On a defense full of star power, it only makes sense to attack the weakest link. We saw some of that last night against the Cowboys with Bishop being involved on a number of the big plays allowed.
That includes stressing communication with the young player.
At one point late in the game, the Cowboys moved CeeDee Lamb to match up with Bishop before the Steelers promptly called a timeout. Teams are really starting to focus on him, and it’s putting the Steelers in a bind.
It is not a big surprise that slot corner is a weak spot of the defense given the lack of investment. Thomas Graham Jr. was elevated from the practice squad in Week 4. Perhaps they could give him more of a look next week. Right now, they need to figure something out to get them through the bye week. Once the bye week is over, Cam Sutton can move back to the slot to help alleviate this growing issue on the defense.
Minkah Fitzpatrick spoke after the game about simplifying the defense to allow their playmakers to play fast. Perhaps they will try to disguise things less next week to allow the defense to play simple coverage schemes.
