Without Zach Frazier playing and with Roman Wilson inactive for the New York Jets game with a hamstring injury, it was a very light week for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ rookies. While only a few rookies played, their impact way outsized their volume of snaps. It actually ended up being a banner day for the Pittsburgh rookies in the 37-15 win over the Jets. As always, I will break down the rookies that played, their snap counts and Pro Football Focus grades, and offer some analysis to pair with a clip or two of their play.
Week 7 – Vs. New York Jets
ILB Payton Wilson
Snaps: 31 on defense (54 percent), 17 on special teams
PFF Grades: 52.5 overall, 52.8 run defense, 55.8 coverage, 68.8 tackling
Payton Wilson logged double-digit tackles for the first time in his career. He had 10 total, including four solo tackles. He has consistently shown his ability to hustle and utilize his speed to cover sideline to sideline. Good things usually happen when players swarm to the ball, and Wilson definitely swarms.
His ability to make this tackle to limit the gain to just a couple yards is really impressive. It shows off every bit of his speed and Wilson did a nice job recognizing the play quickly without any hesitation.
He plays fast, but the trick for him will be figuring out how to play under control a little bit more. This play shows his hustle and speed, but he could have forced a turnover with a little savvy. The ball was completely exposed to him, the tackle was basically secured with three teammates in a box around the receiver, and I don’t think he sensed Wilson coming in from behind. He had a prime opportunity for some ball hunting and didn’t take it.
OG Mason McCormick
Snaps: 68 on offense (100 percent), 7 on special teams
PFF Grades: 54.9 overall, 81.7 pass block, 48.1 run block
The Jets have a pretty strong defensive front, and they didn’t wreck the game. Especially with C Ryan McCollum starting next to McCormick, his job was a little tougher last Sunday, and he held up pretty well. His pass-blocking grade was right up there with his first game against the Chargers in Week 3, except over a much larger number of snaps.
There weren’t that many spectacular plays one way or the other for McCormick in this game, but I like his technique on this rep. He won the leverage battle with his pad level, landed a punch with his inside arm to the chest of the defensive tackle, and then kept his center of gravity and base when the defender started taking himself out of the play. No need for him to overcommit and open himself up to a counter. He sat in his spot with good technique.
CB Beanie Bishop Jr.
Snaps: 47 on defense (82 percent), 13 on special teams
PFF Grades: 78.8 overall, 63.5 run defense, 79.7 coverage, 82.8 tackling
Bishop had the best game of his career by a good margin. The two interceptions obviously take all the headlines, and deservedly so against Aaron Rodgers, but he was also solid as a tackler and on the more routine plays. On top of his two interceptions, one of which was nearly returned for a touchdown, Bishop logged a career-high six total tackles with five of them being solo. It was perfect timing for Bishop to state his case in the last couple games before Cameron Sutton is available after his suspension. Bishop has earned himself some additional snaps once Sutton returns, I would think.
His first interception was more impressive to me. He dropped into his zone with his hips flipped opposite where the ball ended up getting thrown. He read Rodgers’ eyes the whole way through and flipped his hips all the way around to make a pretty difficult catch.
He has also gotten quite good at sniffing out screens and other quick passes behind the line of scrimmage. He crashes down on the swing route from the slot receiver for a big TFL here. His tackling remains very solid in these situations.
