The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2025 offseason practices concluded in the middle of June and next up is the team’s annual training camp, which will get underway in the latter part of July at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Ahead of that, we will preview the team’s offseason roster three players at a time as part of a multi-post series. This Steelers roster preview, which includes an outlook for every player, will be done alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow. This series figures to exceed 90 players this year as the team can carry 91 players during the offseason due to the allowance of one international player designation.
The next three players we will preview ahead of Steelers 2025 training camp are Keeanu Benton, Beanie Bishop Jr., and Yahya Black.
DT Keeanu Benton: Selected by the Steelers in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, Benson registered 36 total tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, one interception, six passes defensed, eight quarterback hits, and one fumble recovery in 2024, his second NFL season. The Wisconsin product started 14 regular-season games in 2024 and played in all 17 contests. He also started the team’s lone playoff game in 2024 on his way to registering four total tackles.
Benton logged 641 defensive snaps in 2024 and 59 on special teams. In the Steelers’ base defense, Benton was primarily used as a nose tackle. In sub-packages, he was mainly used as one of two defensive tackles.
Outlook: Benton needs to take yet another step forward in 2025. The biggest knock on Benson has been his inability to finish plays in the backfield, and most notably sacks. He has just two career sacks but probably could have at least eight more. He also needs to become more consistent as a run defender in his third NFL season.
Benton has proven to be a powerful player on the defensive line, especially early in games. His club-and-swim is perhaps his best move. If he can become a better bull rusher that should round out his game when it comes to getting after opposing quarterbacks.
Benton has the ability to register more than five sacks and double-digit tackles for loss in a season. Those should be two statistical goals for him entering his third NFL season. A solid 2025 season could result in Benton signing a very lucrative contract extension next offseason as he’ll be entering the final year of his rookie deal. It’s time for Benton to start playing and producing like a second-round selection.
CB Beanie Bishop Jr.: The Steelers signed Bishop last offseason as an undrafted free agent out of West Virginia. He made the Steelers’ 53-man roster as a rookie and played in all 17 regular-season games as well as the team’s lone playoff contest. Credited with six regular-season starts in 2024, Bishop registered 45 total tackles, two tackles for loss, four interceptions, seven passes defensed, half a sack, and one fumble recovery. Two of Bishop’s four interceptions came against the New York Jets and QB Aaron Rodgers.
Bishop logged 548 defensive snaps during the 2024 regular season and 175 more on special teams. Most of his defensive playing time came as a slot cornerback as part of the unit’s nickel personnel grouping. Bishop saw playing time on defense right out of the chute as a rookie and in only three games did he fail to log at least 22 snaps.
Pro Football Focus charged Bishop with just three missed tackles in 2024 and 40 receptions allowed for 436 yards and three touchdowns on 59 regular-season targets.
Outlook: Bishop’s first job this summer will be to outright win the starting nickel cornerback job. He will likely need to beat out Brandin Echols for that job so that could be an interesting battle to watch once training camp gets underway.
After logging right at 50 percent of the Steelers’ total defensive snaps in 20214, Bishop could exceed that in his second NFL season, especially if he wins the starting nickel job. He should be a lot more comfortable in the defense in 2025 and thus could slightly improve on his 2024 rookie stat line if he stays healthy.
While Bishop is certainly not a core special teams player, it should be reasonable to expect him to see some action once again in that phase of the game and specifically on the kickoff coverage team.
DT Yahya Black – The Steelers selected Black in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Iowa. In five college seasons, Black registered 116 total tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and 10 passes defended.
Black was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection as both a junior and senior, and he started the final 27 games of his Iowa career. As a senior, he finished with 34 total tackles, including seven tackles for a loss, with one sack, two pass breakups, two quarterback pressures and one blocked field goal.
Outlook: As a mid-round selection, Black figures to make the 53-man roster later this summer as a backup defensive lineman. From there it will be interesting to see if he is able to stay off the inactive list at the start of the season. While Black might see time in training camp this summer up and down the defensive line, his ultimate home might be as a base nose tackle against the run, at least to start his NFL career. Goal-line snaps could be in the cards for him as well in 2025.
Black’s playing time in 2025 isn’t likely to be all that heavy. In fact, there’s probably a decent chance he plays less than a third of the Steelers’ defensive snaps. Throughout his rookie season, it’s important for Black to show that he can be a dependable run defender while also showing some progress as a pass rusher. That was the weakest part of his overall game during his college career.
