Some of the setbacks that transpired in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ preseason loss to Houston on Friday night had a ripple effect when coach Mike Tomlin reconvened his players for practice Sunday at Saint Vincent College.
“We saw some things in the stadium we didn’t like,” Tomlin said. “We catered a lot of the work we did here today to address some of that.”
At center, Nate Herbig continued to take snaps with the first-team offense after two exchanges with quarterback Justin Fields ended up on the ground in the opener.
He just didn’t take all of them. Rookie second-rounder Zach Frazier rotated in with the first-team offense at the pivot for the first time in training camp.
Elsewhere on the offensive line, rookie first-rounder Troy Fautanu’s knee injury has put a temporary halt on Broderick Jones moving to left tackle. With Fautanu out for at least one week because of a knee sprain, Jones did double duty at right tackle Sunday, playing there with the first and second teams.
“We’re really optimistic about a quick return for him,” Tomlin said about Fautanu. “We’ll take it day by day.”
On defense, fifth-year defensive back Grayland Arnold displaced rookie Beanie Bishop to the second team as Tomlin explores his options at slot corner.
“It was an important day in the ‘get better’ cycle,” Tomlin said. “We’re plotting a course for this week so we can position ourselves to be better.”
The Steelers face the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, and that follows a joint practice between the teams two days earlier.
Frazier could see extended playing time with the first team in the second preseason game. After Herbig and Fields were involved in two bad snaps on the opening two series, Frazier took over. He played into the second half, logging 39 snaps to Herbig’s nine.
When Frazier played with the first-teamers Sunday, Herbig shifted to right guard, giving James Daniels a breather.
“He has in-stadium exposure (now),” Tomlin said, “so it’s reasonable to expect him to be significantly better this week. We’re going to position him to do so with an increased workload.”
Fautanu, though, won’t be joining Frazier on the top unit — or any unit — anytime soon. He entered the game against Houston for the second series but didn’t return after halftime because of his knee sprain. He played 25 snaps.
“He was doing really well,” Tomlin said. “Obviously, we wanted to get him a lot of work because that’s where he is in his development. I like the general trajectory of it.”
Two days after being the first slot corner to take the field in subpackages, Bishop worked with the second team. Taking his spot was Arnold, who spent the past three seasons with the Texans.
It was the first time this camp that Bishop, the undrafted free agent from West Virginia, or veteran DeShon Elliott didn’t work in the slot with the starters.
“This week will be an interesting week for him,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said of Arnold. “Really to see him go full speed all week at practice and leading up to the game, I think that’s going to be important for him, and how he performs this week will be key.”
Arnold played just five snaps against the Texans in the preseason opener. Bishop was on the field for 20 and tied for third on the team with four tackles. He also was used on special teams.
“There were some plays I left out there,” Bishop said. “I made a couple mistakes, things that I can build from. Being my first game, next week I’m going to build off that and correct those so we won’t have them again.”
Austin indicated the Steelers are still intrigued by Bishop as a starting option to open the season while Cam Sutton serves his eight-game suspension.
“He’s a feisty little guy,” he said. “You got a chance to see him blitz, he knocked a running back around a little bit. It’s like anything — he’s got a ways to go in his game. He’s right there in the competition to be in the hunt to be the starting nickel. That’s a good thing.”
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