Sitting at 6-2 coming off a much-needed Week 9 bye week, the Pittsburgh Steelers look like one of the best teams in the AFC, right there with the likes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans.
Not only are they stacking wins and starting to generate attention as a team, they’re receiving quite a bit of attention individually, too.
For ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, three Steelers were highlighted in his midseason NFL awards piece that published Thursday morning. Unsurprisingly, head coach Mike Tomlin and star OLB T.J. Watt were featured prominently in the NFL midseason awards piece.
But there was one surprising name that Barnwell highlighted for an award. It happened to be rookie CB Beanie Bishop Jr., who was included in the Defensive Rookie of the Year ballot from Barnwell.
Barnwell placed Bishop third on his ballot, behind only Philadelphia Eagles CB Quinyon Mitchell and Los Angeles Rams DE Jared Verse.
“Bishop is a feisty, fun player to watch in the middle of the field. He shows up as a tackler and against the run,” Barnwell writes for ESPN.com. “The Falcons were able to get him for a touchdown in Week 1 when he didn’t get the sort of depth he needed in zone coverage near the end zone, but he did a great job of squeezing a route up the sideline later in the game to help create a key interception by Donte Jackson.
“Bishop is a plus contributor on one of the league’s best defenses.”
It’s great to see Bishop getting some attention when it comes to awards because what he’s done in recent weeks is rather remarkable.
After playing roughly 60% of the defensive snaps in the first three weeks of the season, Bishop started to earn more trust from the Steelers, and saw his snaps jump to 70-75% from Weeks 4-6 before playing 82% and 83% of the snaps in Weeks 7 and 8.
It is rather fitting that Bishop recorded the first three interceptions of his career in Weeks 7 and 8 while seeing the most playing time of his career. Granted, one was off a tipped pass on an overthrow and another bounced off receiver’s chest into the air for the interception, but they all count the same.
He’s been a solid player in recent weeks, shaking off a bad performance against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 5 on Sunday Night Football to become a key contributor for the Black and Gold. We’ll see if that continues moving forward with the return of Cameron Sutton following an eight-game suspension.
Outside of Bishop in the Rookie of the Year voting, Watt landed at No. 2 in Barnwell’s Defensive Player of the Year midseason voting, ahead of Cleveland’s Myles Garrett but somehow behind Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson.
“Watt hasn’t been a one-man show this season; Alex Highsmith and even Nick Herbig have been excellent on the other side of the field. It’s not Watt’s most productive season, as he has 6.5 sacks and 14 knockdowns through eight games,” Barnwell writes. “He still has 10 tackles for loss and is tied for the league lead with four forced fumbles, three of which have come in the red zone and ended drives. What, you think the Steelers had the league’s best red-zone defense by sheer chance?”
While the big sack numbers aren’t there just yet that many have become accustomed to, Watt continues to be a game-changer each and every week. Though he’s dealing with a ton of chips and double teams, he’s still impacting games and taking advantage of opportunities in key spots, much like he did in Week 8 against the New York Giants.
In that matchup, the Giants made a mistake and left him one-on-one against RT Jermaine Eluemunor deep in Pittsburgh territory in the fourth quarter. Watt made them pay with a strip-sack and fumble recovery on QB Daniel Jones, helping the Steelers win the game.
It certainly helps that Watt has some talent around him in the form of Cameron Heyward, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig — not to mention the newly acquired Preston Smith — to help take attention off him. But time and time again, Watt finds a way to make huge plays.
He was snubbed last year for his second DPOY award, and though he isn’t putting up monster numbers just yet this season, Watt is seemingly more deserving than ever for more hardware.
Finally, in Barnwell’s Coach of the Year ballot, Tomlin edged out the likes of Washington’s Dan Quinn, and Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell.
“I’ve been skeptical of the Steelers over the past few years because their underlying performance hasn’t matched their win-loss record, and history tells us that a team outperforming its point differential and record in close games eventually catches up with it. Well, Pittsburgh has responded to that by simply improving its performance,” Barnwell writes of the coaching job Tomlin has done. “It’s 6-2 with a Pythagorean expectation of…exactly six wins. It has gone 1-2 in games decided by seven points or fewer, although it does have two victories by exactly eight points.
“The Steelers are a nightmare to play and have made teams beat themselves. It seems like the head coach, who has somehow never won this award, might have something to do with that.”
It’s about time Tomlin gets some credit for the season the Steelers are putting together. When things are rough, there’s a lot of criticism pointed at Tomlin — and rightfully so. But when things are good and the Steelers are playing good football, it’s very quiet when it comes to Tomlin praise.
As Barnwell pointed out, the Steelers are a nightmare to play. They don’t make mistakes, take the football away and know how to win low-scoring games. In tight moments, they don’t blink, and they’re always prepared. That’s a testament to the coaching Tomlin does day to day.
We’ll see if things go well in the second half, much like they did in the first half. If they do, and guys like Watt and Bishop are making plays defensively, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them in the running for awards late in the season, and for Tomlin to get serious buzz for Coach of the Year.
