Outside of injuries, no position has seen more dramatic week-to-week shifts in playing time and responsibilities than slot corner. Beanie Bishop Jr. felt that in Week 17 when he received zero defensive snaps against the Kansas City Chiefs.
His share of snaps has been on the decline over the last three weeks, but before that he played a whopping 81 percent of the snaps on defense in Week 14 against the Cleveland Browns. His 58 snaps that week are more than the last three games combined.
Mike Tomlin was asked about the division of labor at slot corner between Bishop and Cam Sutton during his weekly press conference.
“You know, I think we determine division of labor week in and week out based on a variety of variables. It is no different than the conversation that we have regarding Elandon Roberts and Payton Wilson, for example, or the tight ends,” Tomlin said Monday via the team’s YouTube channel. “You could pick any component of play. We divvy the labor up and we try to put guys in position to show what they’re capable of and things that provide the best matchup for us relative to those that we compete against.”
His answer doesn’t give a ton of insight to why someone like Bishop might receive zero snaps after playing well over 50 percent of the team’s total defensive snaps this season. Tomlin later talked about the switching of personnel leading to some of the communication problems in recent weeks. Reading between the lines, could Bishop have been part of that issue? Or could switching so much throughout the game have been disadvantageous in terms of communication?
Another possible explanation, more in line with what Tomlin was saying, is that the Steelers didn’t like the matchup in the slot for Bishop against the Chiefs. He is 5-9, 183 pounds and would have been going up against JuJu Smith-Schuster a lot. The Steelers are of course very familiar with Smith-Schuster’s physicality and at 6-1, 216 pounds, he is more of a big slot who could have been a difficult matchup for Bishop. Sutton has a little bit more length to him to help combat that.
Just a few weeks ago, amid Bishop’s share of the snaps taking a hit, Tomlin said he would be a big part of what the Steelers do down the stretch. The very next game he played 81 percent of the snaps. Since then, his snaps have been declining once again. I wouldn’t expect to see zero snaps for him moving forward. He has the second-most interceptions on the team, and Tomlin just talked about re-emphasizing their turnover culture.
With a fully healthy stable of players to work with, hopefully things can start to get back to normal in the secondary.
