Steelers Rookie Has Golden Opportunity on Defense

The Pittsburgh Steelers know Joey Porter Jr. and Darius Slay will lock down the starting roles as their outside cornerbacks in 2025, but who takes over in the slot is a whole other question.

As an undrafted rookie out of West Virginia, Beanie Bishop Jr. earned the job in the preseason and took 320 snaps there through the Steelers' Week 9 bye, per Pro Football Focus.

Cam Sutton usurped him towards the end of the year, however, as Bishop logged just 42 reps from the slot between Week 15 and Pittsburgh's Wild Card round loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

He has a golden opportunity to snatch that role back now that Sutton is a free agent, and head coach Mike Tomlin believes he's capable of making an impact down the road.

“I thought he made some plays, particularly as you look at cut ups," Tomlin said at the NFL league meetings. "It was a good start for him, particularly being an undrafted guy the way that he was. It’s reasonable to expect him to continue to grow and take off and be able to do some more things. Excited about the upside of him, but certainly he’s going to be faced with some competitive challenges in terms of re-earning that role in 2025, but that’s just the nature of this thing."

Bishop's best stretch last season came in Pittsburgh's back-to-back primetime home games against the New York Jets and New York Giants in Weeks 7 and 8, respectively.

He recorded three interceptions across those contests, two of which were off Aaron Rodgers while the other sealed the Steelers' win over the Giants with under a minute left in the fourth quarter.

On the campaign as a whole, Pro Football Reference charted Bishop as giving up 37 receptions for 388 yards in coverage.

Pittsburgh may look to take a nickelback in the NFL Draft who can come in and compete with Bishop, but he appears to have the edge on any other option at the position as of now, and the team hopes he continues to develop after flashing his playmaking abilities in 2024.