**Player: CB Beanie Bishop Jr.**
**Stock Value: Down**
**Reasoning:** _The Steelers have made one thing clear to Beanie Bishop Jr.: don’t expect anything handed to you. Not that he was expecting a starting job to fall into his lap, but he will have to earn it. During his rookie season, he already watched the team take snaps away from him when Cameron Sutton returned. While Sutton isn’t likely to return, somebody else will be there to, at best, push him._
Beanie Bishop Jr. intercepted four passes during his rookie season for the Steelers last year. Under normal circumstances, that is plenty of reason to celebrate, and to anoint a young player. That is not the case here, with the former college free agent still on the fringes of the starting lineup.
While it’s unlikely he might fall off the roster entirely, the Steelers made pretty clear that they think—or hope—they can upgrade the slot cornerback position with someone better than Beanie Bishop Jr. There is a reason that nobody drafted him, after all, and it isn’t entirely because of his height.
The Steelers did employ a short nickel cornerback for a long time in Mike Hilton, also a former undrafted free agent. After him, they had Arthur Maulet, another short guy, and Chandon Sullivan. In other words, it’s not just height for Bishop.
On the whole, Bishop is a success story for the Steelers, at least for the opening chapter. Making the roster at all and playing was already a win, but he played significantly, made critical plays, and started numerous games.
The Steelers signed veteran Brandin Echols in free agency, who is capable of playing in the slot. Barring the use of a safety such as Juan Thornhill, though, I don’t see a lot of competition for Beanie Bishop. One might suspect they are talking a bigger game than they plan for.
Of course, it makes all the sense in the world for the Steelers to want Bishop to earn a starting job. Equally important is the desire for Bishop to _feel like he has to_ earn that job. And he should, considering how they allowed Cameron Sutton to steal his snaps a year ago. But right now, it doesn’t look like his competition is the stiffest in the world.
_With the new league year underway and the Steelers turning their roster over, it’s once again time to “take stock”. It took a while, but we finally saw some of that_ [_change the team talked about_](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/02/steelers-make-their-coaching-changes-they-still-manage-to-disappoint/) _after the season ended. Certainly, the move to trade for WR DK Metcalf qualifies as a change, not to mention the accompanying contract._
_There is still a long way to go before we know what this Steelers team is going to look like. Once the dust settles on free agency, we turn our attention_ [_to the draft_](https://www.nfl.com/draft/)_, and so on. What other moves might the team make, perhaps unexpected acquisitions or departures? If they traded for one player, they could certainly trade for another, or trade one away. This is a Steelers team starving for postseason success, but how desperate are they for a playoff win in 2025?_