Steelers/NFL category, Page 445
Steelers going increasingly hybrid on defense, showcasing versatility with secondary
It wasn’t that many years ago the Pittsburgh Steelers had, in effect, only two defensive packages they used the vast majority of the time. Even after a six-DB dime was added to nickel and base, the personnel groupings would remain the same, with the one body swapped in to play...
Kevin Gorman: Jaylen Samuels embraces increased ‘slash-fun player’ role for SteelersVideo
To say Jaylen Samuels was a secret weapon for the Pittsburgh Steelers last season is an understatement, given even their coaches didn’t know what to call his college position. Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner described Samuels a “tight end-slash-fun player that did fun things” at N.C. State, where he set a...
Sean Davis almost certainly out for Steelers’ opener at Patriots; Kameron Kelly will start
Sean Davis completed the first practice week of the Pittsburgh Steelers regular season without participating at all because of an ankle injury. That opens the door for Kameron Kelly, a castoff from the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent last season (Dallas – nor any other team – did...
Friday Football Footnotes: Former Steeler rips Antonio Brown; O.J. Simpson piles on
“Friday Football Footnotes” returns for Week 1 of the NFL season. Both O.J. Simpson and Merril Hoge are piling on Antonio Brown. Drew Rosenhaus doesn’t sound optimistic about Monday night for A.B. And we have injury information from both Cleveland and New England. Rosenhaus not rosey If Drew Rosenhaus can’t...
Tim Benz: Some Steelers actually enjoy playing in New England
The 2016 AFC Championship Game. Giving up 55 points in 2013. Anthony Smith’s guarantee in 2007. Getting smoked the night the building opened its doors in September 2002. Yeah. Gillette Stadium has pretty much been a house of horrors for the Steelers. The franchise is just 1-5 there and 0-5...
Steelers’ Ryan Switzer hopes to emulate Julian Edelman’s slot production
As pass after pass ended up in Julian Edelman’s hands during Super Bowl LII, Ryan Switzer watched it unfold on television with equal parts admiration and envy. For an NFL slot receiver, what Edelman did in the New England Patriots’ 13-3 win against the Los Angeles Rams — catching 10...
Patriots cornerback: Steelers’ JuJu Smith-Schuster not among NFL’s best receivers
Three days before JuJu Smith-Schuster’s debut as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ No. 1 receiver, did one of the players who will be tasked to defend Smith-Schuster diss him? New England Patriots cornerback J.C. Jackson had an exchange with Boston-area radio reporter Ryan Hannable that suggests so, according to a post to...
Steelers could face Patriots with two new starters on defense
Based on the participation report in practice Thursday, it’s looking more likely the Pittsburgh Steelers will open the season against the New England Patriots with a rookie inside linebacker and a free safety also playing in his first NFL game. Sean Davis did not practice again because of an ankle...
Steelers’ JuJu Smith-Schuster expects to be focus of Patriots’ gameplan
Since Antonio Brown was traded to the Oakland Raiders in March, the Pittsburgh Steelers have faced endless questions about how the offense will fare without the All-Pro wide receiver. The answer will become clearer Sunday night when the Steelers open at defending Super Bowl champion New England. “Turn on the...
Raiders plan to suspend Antonio Brown after blowup with GM
ALAMEDA, Calif. — Star receiver Antonio Brown was not with the Oakland Raiders four days before the season opener amid reports he could be suspended over a confrontation with general manager Mike Mayock. Mayock said at the beginning of practice Thursday that the former Pittsburgh Steeler wasn’t at the Raiders...
Finally, Steelers’ James Conner gets his chance to start against Patriots
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing their third game against the New England Patriots since James Conner was drafted in 2017. For Conner, the season opener Sunday night at Gillette Stadium will represent his first career start against the Steelers’ longtime nemesis. Conner was a backup to Le’Veon Bell when...
First Call: Antonio Brown’s latest tantrum; JuJu Smith-Schuster on Sports Illustrated cover
In Thursday’s “First Call,” Antonio Brown rips his new team. JuJu Smith-Schuster is a Sports Illustrated cover boy. And someone just did something we haven’t seen since Babe Ruth. We’ve seen this fish before It took nine full seasons before Antonio Brown became intolerable in Pittsburgh. I wonder if he’ll...
Kevin Gorman: Steelers LB Devin Bush ready to be tested by Tom Brady in debutVideo
As daunting debuts go, Devin Bush knows that he couldn’t ask for much more from his first NFL game as a Pittsburgh Steeler. The 21-year-old first-round draft pick from Michigan appears unfazed about opening the regular season against the reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots on a prime-time Sunday...
U mad, bro? Pitt fans lash out at Pat Narduzzi; angst over Pirates, Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell
How do I know when somebody is starting to slip in popularity at Pitt? When I write a critical column regarding the Panthers football team and I get far more positive response to it than I do negative. Normally, if I write anything remotely skeptical about Pitt football, I’m overwhelmed...
Tim Benz: How Steelers should prepare for post-Gronkowski Patriots
It’s … what? What word would you use? Ironic? Typical? Funny? Unfortunate? No. Not unfortunate. No matter how you slice it, be glad that the Steelers don’t have to deal with Rob Gronkowski anymore. Even if they are probably better suited to do so right now than they have ever...
Ulysees Gilbert, Tuzar Skipper the other rookies part of Steelers linebackers corps
One-third of the linebackers on Pittsburgh Steelers season-opening roster are rookies. One, No. 10 overall pick Devin Bush, was assured of making the team. The others had to show enough to do so. A pair of Mid-American Conference standouts, Ulysees Gilbert and Tuzar Skipper, were playmakers throughout training camp and...
Kevin Gorman: Steelers need to stop watching and wishing they were PatriotsVideo
The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers opened the season in Foxborough, the New England Patriots didn’t just unveil their fourth Super Bowl banner. They trotted out their trophies, too. New England owner Robert Kraft was joined by Patriots greats Troy Brown, Willie McGinest and Ty Law in carrying their four...
WPIAL alumni Kevin Rader, Trevon Mathis happy to make the Steelers practice squad
While Trevon Mathis and Kevin Rader were in high school, their football teams played each other. “The two of us talked about that this morning,” Rader said earlier this week. “At the Wolvarena.” On Oct. 21, 2011, Rader’s Pine-Richland Rams lost 26-7 at The Wolvarena in Turtle Creek against Mathis’...
Sean Davis again misses practice, stage setting for Kameron Kelly to start NFL debut for Steelers
The first injury report of the Pittsburgh Steelers season was brief. But it could lead to quite the storyline for their regular-season opener. Starting free safety Sean Davis did not participate in Wednesday’s practice because of an ankle injury suffered late in training camp. Although there are still two practices...
Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger ready to spread the wealth against Patriots
The last team to defeat the New England Patriots used a backup running back gaining 172 scrimmage yards and a diverse passing game to eke out a 17-10 victory in December. Is it a formula the Pittsburgh Steelers might use again when they open the season against the Patriots on...
Heinz Field ranks high in atmosphere, food in new stadium survey
Fans going to a Pittsburgh Steelers game and visiting Heinz Field ranked the stadium’s atmosphere and food high, but the bathrooms average. Ticket site SeatGeek released its 2019 NFL stadium guides Wednesday, which surveyed more than 3,200 NFL fans about game-day atmosphere, in-stadium food, and bathrooms. Heinz Field ranked ninth...
Without Rob Gronkowski, will Patriots rely on running game vs. Steelers?
We head to New England to get a little perspective on the Patriots for Wednesday’s podcast. And a familiar voice provides that for us. TribLive Radio pioneer Ken Laird joins me. He now works with WEEI in Boston as part of the radio station’s morning show. Ken tells us how...
Tim Benz: Steelers’ Javon Hargrave could be a ‘Blockbuster’ vs. Patriots
It isn’t the most obvious Mike Tomlin analogy of all time. But I see where he is going with it. At his weekly press conference on Tuesday, I asked Tomlin about nose tackle Javon Hargrave. In my mind, if the Steelers pull off an upset against the New England Patriots...
Tim Benz: Le’Veon Bell’s latest jab at Steelers is laughable
Le’Veon Bell lobbed one more shot at the Pittsburgh Steelers before the start of the 2019 season. And this one was just a plain old quote. Not a tweet or a mumbled rhyme in a terrible rap track. Check out this hot take from the New York Jets running back....
Tomlin: Depth chart remains ‘very fluid’ for QB Mason Rudolph, other Steelers players
The depth chart Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin unveiled Tuesday is similar to the one he provided at the beginning of the preseason. Veterans Donte Moncrief, Mark Barron and Steve Nelson are starters at their respective positions. First-round pick Devin Bush is listed as a backup to Barron at inside...
