Pittsburgh Steelers Exit Meeting: CB Beanie Bishop Jr.
Experience: 1 Year
If the Steelers have confidence in CB Beanie Bishop Jr., they have a funny way of showing it. Despite his productive efforts taking the ball away, they are hunting for his replacement in the starting lineup. They already swapped him out in the second half of last season and look to do it again this year.
An undrafted rookie out of West Virginia, Beanie Bishop Jr. chose the Steelers because of the opportunity. That opportunity proved more robust than first imagined, due both to injuries and a suspension. Perhaps they threw him into the fire before he was ready, but he seemed to settle in during the second half of the season.
The Steelers planned for Bishop as part of an open competition, needing someone to man the slot. By the end of training camp, however, they struggled to find healthy bodies. So he settled into the starting job almost by default, and admittedly he looked rough for a number of games.
But he seemed to gain confidence after picking off Aaron Rodgers twice in Week 7, even to ask for his autograph. Many Steelers fans viewed Beanie Bishop Jr. as a younger, faster, but smaller version of Mike Hilton. Perhaps that is not far off the mark, but that doesn’t mean he is on it.
Of Bishop’s four interceptions last year, arguably only one of them took any real skill and effort. Other players created the subsequent three, picking off passes from ricochets or overthrows. But a defensive back never turns down a free play, and the Steelers appreciate those who take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.
Prior to the Steelers’ bye week, Beanie Bishop logged 354 snaps in eight games. He played over 71 percent of their defensive snaps, but the second half of the season was a different story. The Steelers got Cameron Sutton back from suspension, and he ate into Bishop’s playing time.
They made the transition slowly, at first, Bishop playing over 50 percent of the snaps in the first game after the Steelers’ bye. Yet by the end of the year, he was barely playing. From Week 10 on, he only played 194 snaps, under one-third of the Steelers’ defensive total.
Now the team has signed veteran DB Brandin Echols. His strength is more in coverage than in run support, but do the Steelers view Bishop as a run-down nickel? I don’t think there was enough from his rookie season to suggest that is the role for him.
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves at home, the inevitable result of another early playoff exit. This is a repeated pattern for the organization, with no clear end in sight. As the Steelers conduct their own exit meetings, we will go down the roster conducting our own. Who should stay, and who should go, and how? Who should expect a bigger role next season, and who might deserve a new contract? We’ll explore those questions and more in these articles, part of an annual series.
