Eckert’s Examinations: CB Beanie Bishop Jr. 2021 Run Defense Study

With the initial 53-man roster cutdown in the rearview mirror, rookie CB Beanie Bishop Jr. currently stands as the primary slot corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played substantial first-team slot reps this offseason, justifying several of my prior offseason studies on the cornerback position.

To follow up articles on Bishop in 2022 and 2023, I wanted to dive into his 2021 season with Western Kentucky, the only one of his college career when his predominant alignment was in the slot.

Today, let’s look at and provide some data context in run defense from Pro Football Focus (PFF), including CBs with at least 175 regular season run snaps and 10 run tackles for comparative context.

Let’s start with 2021 run snaps and average depth of tackle for quantity of plays and yardage comparatively:

First, we see that Bishop’s run snap opportunities were low among the 174 qualifying CBs, ranking 166th. A 3.2 ADOT was excellent quality, ranking ninth-best. If forced to choose, it’s always quality over quantity of course, and Bishop offered that in spades in these terms.

Let’s add context with the Bishop’s alignment rates:

As I stated earlier, 2021 was Bishop’s only year where slot led his snap rates. We see there was still a close split to outside reps. You’d think a much higher slot percentage for such a strong ADOT, but this makes that number even more impressive.

Now let’s look at types of run tackles, solo versus assisted:

Getting to the ball on assisted run tackles was an above-average asset to Bishop’s run defense with six (T-36th). This points to pursuing the football, and not assuming a teammate’s ‘got this’. That quality is extremely valued in Pittsburgh. The other side of the coin was a below average 13 solo run tackles, tying for 153rd. We saw this ability in his first NFL action in the preseason though, so it’s not overly concerning in my opinion.

Next, I wanted to see how the players fared in a ‘hit or miss’ type view with stop percentage, which uses the successful play rates formula (less than 40-percent on first down, 50-percent or less on second down, and third or fourth down plays kept from a first down or touchdown) and missed tackle percentage:

Encouragingly, Bishop provided a strong 4.2 stop rate that tied for 14th, expected after his even better ADOT rank. Also great to learn about his above average 13.6 missed tackle rate, tying for 93rd out of the 174 qualifiers. This number also improved in his final two seasons, so quite a long sample size of being a plus tackler against the run.

Here are PFF grades in overall defense, and run defense:

Here, we see great balanced grades compared to his peers. In total defense, Bishop had a 75.3 grade, tying for 37th out of 174 players. That’s strong in itself, but an 82.6 run defense grade ranked even better, tying for a great 16th rank. Though it was a few seasons ago, this is all nice to see, particularly in his season when he played the most slot, his expected role in Pittsburgh.

Here’s to hoping Bishop can have a similar impact in the Black and Gold, providing solid run defense from the slot corner position.

To close, here’s a wrap up table:

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