Weekly one-on-one sessions with HC Mike Tomlin were a core part of Steelers rookie DB Beanie Bishop Jr.’s story. They began in the early portions of the regular season last year and spanned through to the end. With his rookie season in the rearview mirror, he reflected on those sessions and what they meant—for both parties.
“It was like an every Friday thing. After we get done with the team meetings, I would go in there and it’d be very brief some days”, Bishop told Missi Matthews for the team’s website about his meetings with Tomlin. “Sometimes he’ll have a paper written out that would say ‘Beanie’s Meeting’ on top and it would have all the little notes on it and stuff”.
A rookie college free agent out of West Virginia, Beanie Bishop Jr. signed with the Steelers in part because of Mike Tomlin. He principally chose this destination because of his opportunity to make the team. But he also saw his coach’s willingness to push to give him the edge he needed to see the field.
“It means a lot”, Bishop reflected on his rookie one-on-one meetings with Tomlin. “Obviously, he’s a Hall of Fame coach. He knows what he knows. How to get guys in the right position, give him the right information for guys to be able to make plays. I think he really got to see that coming full circle with the meetings that we had and me being able to produce on the field”.
The most obvious example, which he has mentioned before, was his first career interception. That play was a product of film study from Beanie Bishop, no doubt something Mike Tomlin also drilled into him. He finished his rookie season with four interceptions in all.
While that was his most impressive, though, it wasn’t his favorite. He reserved that for a game-sealing nab a week later against the New York Giants. Like Tomlin, he seems to prefer the results rather than the degree of difficulty, and putting a game to bed is a different feeling.
Going into his second season, though, it is unclear what role Tomlin has in store for Bishop. In the second half of last season, he turned away from the rookie once Cameron Sutton was available. He still saw snaps, but not nearly as many.
While nobody anticipates that the Steelers will re-sign Sutton, many believe they are in the market for a new starting nickel cornerback. Tomlin and company largely settled on Bishop as the last man standing, though they could have had worse options.
The biggest knock on Bishop is simply his size, and that you can’t change. He will always be shorter than is ideal, and that will be an issue on the field. There’s no getting around that, but there are ways to mitigate it. That’s what makes the mental game so important. Mike Tomlin saw that, knowing that is how Bishop would succeed. But will the private tutoring continue for another year?
