One of the real bright spots of the 2024 season for the Pittsburgh Steelers was the play of slot cornerback Beanie Bishop. Bishop joined the team as an undrafted free agent out of West Virginia and thanks to some injuries found himself in the Steelers starting lineup at the beginning of the season.
However, Bishop was benched late in the season in favor of veteran Cameron Sutton. Sutton was suspended for the first eight games of the season but once he was eligible, head coach Mike Tomlin started to work him into the rotation.
Bishop appeared on the Big C’s Conversation podcast and talked about his benching and how it impacted him.
“It was just a coaching thing,” Bishop said. “Obviously, I felt a way about it too, as well. But whatever they thought to help us win football games, I’m going to be all for it. Because I want to be able to win and things like that. It was a big transition, starting and playing a lot to not playing that much.
For the season, Bishop played just over 50 percent of the defensive snaps. Sutton, on the other hand, played just 23.44 percent of the defensive snaps. So while Sutton did steal a couple of starts, Bishop getting more than half of the defensive snaps as an undrafted rookie is something he should be happy about and can build on.
It’s highly unlikely Sutton will be back in 2025 so Bishop should work with some level of confidence that he is the starting slot cornerback going into offseason workouts.