Eckert’s Examinations: 2023 College CB Coverage Study – Beanie Bishop Jr.

Continuing the series, I wanted to circle back to the cornerback position, where Pittsburgh signed Beanie Bishop Jr. out of West Virginia as an undrafted free agent. Today’s goal is to look at and provide stat context using Sports Info Solutions (SIS).

The data in this study looks at his final college season in 2023, examining several aspects in coverage. The goal is to see how Bishop stacked up among his peers.

First, let’s look at opportunities with coverage snaps and targets:

Right away, we can see that Bishop provided nice availability for the Mountaineers, and was targeted quite often on those opportunities. More specifically, he had 462 coverage snaps which ranked ninth-most among the 62 qualifiers with a minimum of 50 targets, and was targeted fifth-most (73 times). Opposing quarterbacks were not afraid to attack him in coverage, which is important context as we layer more data.

Now let’s begin to examine the quality of play with completion percentage and deserved catch percentage, which is the number of completions and drops divided by the number of catchable targets and passes defensed:

Bishop’s 56.2 completion rate allowed was clearly not ideal, ranking 56th, which was the seventh-worst number among qualifiers. His 66.7 deserved catch rate paints a rosier picture thankfully, comfortably above average at 10th-best. Here’s more context on the 73 targets thrown his way: 69 catchable, 41 completions, and 19 passes defensed.

The passes defensed were impressively the most among his peers, so he has encouraging ball production on his resume. The flip side is he faced the most catchable targets as well, and 41 completions allowed was also a high number (tied for second-most). This all makes sense given the disparity in his completion and deserved catch rates. So, the broad story of his 2023 campaign was either he was making plays, or the receiver came out on top.

Next, let’s look at the depth of targets with yards per attempt and yards per coverage snap:

Unfortunately, Bishop was below average in terms of yardage allowed. Important context before I dive into those numbers is alignment, where he played the vast majority of his snaps at outside corner. Generally speaking, that position sees more downfield targets, compared to in the slot. That will be interesting to monitor considering a move inside might be his best path in the NFL, namely due to his size (5091, 180), and more opportunities at that spot in hopes of making Pittsburgh’s roster.

In 2023, Bishop allowed 7.4 yards per attempt (T-40th) and 1.2 yards per coverage snap (T-49th), so not great compared to his 62 qualifying peers. In totality, 542 yards allowed, which was third-most among the group. Recalling his fifth-most targets, it definitely could’ve been worse, but a concern if he earns opportunities nonetheless. Perhaps if a slot role comes to fruition, that could aid him in these terms and transitioning to the league.

Another stat that is used often to evaluate defenders in coverage is QBR Against, so let’s see how they fare along with Points Saved Per Play (PSPP), which is the total of a player’s EPA responsibility while in coverage using the Total Points system that distributes credit among all players on the field for a given play (with positive numbers being good).

Totals are scaled up to map to the average points scored or allowed on a team level, with the player’s snap count determining how much to adjust. For pass defenders, this includes accounting for pass rush, broken tackles, dropped interceptions, turnovers, and turnover returns. Values are modulated using a quality-of-competition multiplier based on each opponent’s previous year of performance:

Starting with QBR Against, Bishop’s 85.5 number was visibly below the mean, ranking 48th. On the bright side was his 0.07 points saved per play, tying for 24th among his peers. Diving deeper, there were highs and lows in the value for West Virginia last season. Yet to be mentioned are some crucial coverage numbers: five touchdowns allowed (T-third most), four interceptions (T-fifth best), and five dropped interceptions (dead last).

This reiterates the ups and downs of his season once again, encouragingly having a nose for the football in coverage, but leaving plays on the field as well, and allowing opposing receivers to get in the end zone far too often.

To close, let’s look at boom and bust percentages from SIS to see how the cornerbacks performed on extreme end of the spectrum plays:

• Boom % = The percentage of dropbacks that resulted in an Expected Points Added (EPA) of 1 or more (a very successful play for the offense)
• Bust % = The percentage of dropbacks that resulted in an EPA of -1 or less (a very unsuccessful play for the offense)

Another negative to Bishop’s 2023 season in coverage was his play not impacting the outcome of games on the scoreboard overall, unfortunately. This was especially the case in bust rate, with his 9.6 mark being second-worst among the 62 qualifiers. His 27.4 boom rate allowed was better, but still well below average (T-47th).

So, Bishop provided some nice things in coverage in 2023, with top ten marks in the following: catchable targets faced (first), passes defensed (first), interceptions (T-fifth), targets (fifth-most), coverage snaps (ninth), deserved catch rate (tenth). He also was above average in points saved per play (T-24th).

There was unfortunately a lot of bad news too, with below average or bottoming results in the following: yards per attempt (T-40th), boom rate (T-47th), QBR against (48th), yards per coverage snaps (T-49th), completion rate allowed (56th), yards allowed (60th),  completions allowed (T-60th), touchdowns allowed (60th), bust rate (61st), and dropped interceptions (dead last) out of 62 qualifiers.

The path for the undrafted free agent will be tough, even though depth at his projected NFL fit at slot corner isn’t the deepest position on Pittsburgh’s roster. Recently re-signed Cam Sutton is the favorite in most people’s eyes, but there is legal uncertainty that could cause him to miss games, and possibly opening opportunities with no clear frontrunner.

I can’t wait to see how it pans out, and if Bishop can make the 53-man roster, may see the field sooner than later. One thing’s for sure, I can’t wait to see how it pans out.

Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments.