Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers have released cornerback Beanie Bishop from their practice squad, the team announced on Monday.
Bishop had not appeared in a game with the team this season, despite significant turnover at the cornerback position and injuries to Cory Trice and Donte Kent.
Bishop, 25, first signed with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent out of West Virginia in 2024. The 5-foot-9, 182-pound defensive back found a home as a slot cornerback in Pittsburgh, helping to replace Cam Sutton while he served a suspension at the start of the 2024 season.
In his rookie season, Bishop appeared in all 17 games. He made six starts and recoded 45 tackles, two for loss, one-half sack, one quarterback hit, seven passes defended, four interceptions and one fumble recovery.
Despite strong play for an undrafted rookie, Bishop was benched when Sutton returned from his suspension in the second half of the 2024 season.
This offseason, the Steelers completely revamped their secondary, trading away Minkah Fitzpatrick and letting Sutton and Donte Jackson leave via free agency. They replaced them with Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay, Brandin Echols, Juan Thornhill and Chuck Clark with the additional secondary depth pushing Bishop to the practice squad after training camp.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Bishop said after re-signing to the practice squad. “I’m pissed. … “There was teams that could have got me that obviously passed, so it just added more fuel. So I’m essentially set the league on fire, bro, whenever I get to play again. So that’s just how I look at it, just add more motivation, fuel to the fire, so.”
The Steelers have been mixing and matching personnel on the back end throughout the first half of the season, with Ramsey and Echols earning most of the playing time in the slot so far. Even with Ramsey playing the entire game at safety against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, the Steelers did not elevate Ramsey for additional secondary depth.
The team did not announce a corresponding practice squad move, but the Steelers are expected to sign wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling to their practice squad today.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Steelers Cut Ties with Promising Young Cornerback
