During a recent appearance with Joe Starkey and Paul Zeise on 93.7 The Fan, Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette expressed that West Virginia cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. and UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee have the best chance to make the Steelers’ roster amongst undrafted free agents.
“Number one is Beanie Bishop from the backyard in West Virginia. They had him in as a pre-draft visitor,” he said. “He has production, 24 PBUs, four picks last year. He’s fast enough. I think he ran a 4.4, something like that, at his Pro Day.”
According to Chad Reuter of NFL Network, Bishop is considered the best cornerback among this year’s undrafted free agents.
Steelers general manager Omar Khan is also bullish on the former West Virginia Mountaineer.
“Yeah, Beanie Bishop. I can’t tell you how excited we were to have an opportunity to sign Beanie Bishop after the draft. We had him here for a visit. When he was here, we talked about our defense and how he would fit in. We really felt like he was a guy that could come in here and compete,” Khan said, via SteelersNation.com.
The Steelers have a glaring hole at slot cornerback right now, and Khan thinks Bishop could be a player that steps up in that role.
“We were able to do business with him after the draft. I think he’s going to have a great opportunity at nickel to help us this year. He has great special teams value.”
Batko thinks Bishop could be a Mike Hilton or Arthur Maulet type of player in Pittsburgh.
“He’s only 5-9. He’s 24 years old. He played six years at college, so that’s probably why he didn’t get picked,” Batko said. “But those slot corners tend to come from the undrafted ranks like a Mike Hilton or Arthur Maulet type of guy.”
With Plumlee seeing action at wide receiver at UCF, there was speculation that he could play WR in the NFL, but he put that notion to bed during an appearance on The Sick Podcast. Plumlee said he chose the Steelers as a UDFA because they told him they want him to play QB.
“Pittsburgh has relayed their confidence in me as a quarterback, they want me to play quarterback and develop as a quarterback,” he confirmed to Mike Nicastro and Jordan York.
Plumlee is very small for a quarterback, checking in at 5-foot-11 3/4 and 203 pounds, but he tested extremely well, running a 4.51-second 40-yard dash, a 4.27-second shuttle, a 6.96-second three-cone drill, a 36.5-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot-4 broad jump for an 8.81 RAS score out of 10.
Plumlee will slot in behind Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen as the Steelers’ fourth quarterback in training camp, and could be in line to earn a practice squad role where his athleticism could allow him to be a versatile piece of the scout team.
Batko thinks Plumlee’s athleticism gives him a lot of potential and upside.
“He’s athletic. I think there’s always interest in a potential Taysom Hill type of guy like that,” he said of Plumlee. “If you want to just have him on the roster to see any kind of wrinkles or packages, maybe there’s a little value in John Rhys Plumlee type than a Kyle Allen who’s been everywhere and usually a QB3.”
