close
close

Lyricsfood

Sharpen your edge

    • Steelers stock prices rise, stock prices fall after second preseason loss
    News Update

    Steelers stock prices rise, stock prices fall after second preseason loss

    Henry Posted on

    The bad news? Everything related to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense during their 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night.

    The good news? If there’s anything to be learned from last year’s preseason, it’s that there’s little correlation between the first team’s preseason results and their performance during the regular season.

    This time last year, most people in Pittsburgh believed that Matt Canada had finally found his way as a playmaker and Kenny Pickett was a budding superstar.

    In other words, consider Saturday’s fights in context.

    Still, here are some players or areas of the team whose standing in the organization was improved or worsened by Saturday’s performance at Acrisure Stadium:

    Replenish stock

    1.Dec Fitzpatrick

    Did you know that Fitzpatrick is the third-longest-tenured wide receiver on the Steelers? And while Fitzpatrick – who joined the team in January 2023 – won’t replace traded Diontae Johnson as WR2, he’s the favorite to replace departed Miles Boykin as WR5.

    Fitzpatrick had two of the Steelers’ three longest pass catches on Saturday after catching a 34-yard pass in the season opener. Fitzpatrick’s 19-yard pass catch against Buffalo was a nice kick as he fell out of bounds. He also had a 10-yard catch that was disallowed by a penalty.

    Perhaps more important to Fitzpatrick’s chances of making the team is that his 23 special teams snaps are among the most on the team this preseason, and many of them came with first teamers. Fitzpatrick also secured the coveted starting gunner job in punt coverage on Saturday, proving he still has the coaches’ trust despite receiving a penalty for running off the field while working as a gunner in the Texans’ game.

    2. Cameron Johnston

    Johnston – a punter – was a priority for the Steelers in free agency. Throughout training camp and the preseason, he showed why.

    Johnston regularly showed off his strong leg at Saint Vincent College, and a side effect of the ineptitude on offense on Saturday was that Johnston had to take long steps out of his own territory on each of the Steelers’ first four drives and five times in the first half alone.

    The results? Punts of 49, 61, 65, 64 and 45 yards – a gross average of 56.8 yards. Even the net average of 44.2 yards would have ranked third in the NFL last season.

    3. Julius Welschof

    Through two preseason games, no Steelers player has played more snaps from scrimmage (88) than Welschof, a rookie outside linebacker. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Welschof, an undrafted free agent born and raised in Germany, had little to show for it – he had no recorded stats – until Welschof sacked Bills quarterback Ben DiNucci on the Buffalos’ final dropback on Saturday.

    Time will tell if Welschof can develop into a capable NFL regular-season player. But no matter what happens in his career going forward, Welschof can always say that he made a sack in a game at the highest level of American football – and a clean one at that.

    Inventory is decreasing

    1. Broderick Jones

    While it’s not entirely easy to assign blame for a sack to a single offensive player, it is known that the player who is most often directly across from Jones (Gregory Rousseau) was involved in a sack of Wilson on each of the three possessions Rousseau played on. On one, it was pretty clearly a bullying, as Rousseau pushed Jones directly backwards.

    Earlier in training camp, Jones suffered an elbow injury that did not prevent him from fully training but seemed to limit his performance at times. He also requires a brace that may limit Jones’ performance.

    Whatever the reason, Jones’ shaky night against the Bills would be one thing on its own. But coming in the context of an overall disappointing training camp, it could raise red flags for last year’s first-round pick. Jones’ play so far seems closer to a “sophomore bounce” than a sophomore slump.

    Just a few months ago, it would have been unthinkable that Jones wouldn’t be in the starting lineup for the season opener. Now that veteran Dan Moore looks solid at left tackle and first-round pick Troy Fautanu looks like a future star when healthy, it’s within the realm of the realistic.

    2. WR2/WR3 candidates

    With the Brandon Aiyuk saga still unresolved, the Steelers would feel much better about the possibility of the star receiver staying with the San Francisco 49ers if members of their current wide receiver corps asserted themselves as legitimate No. 2-4 options behind alpha WR George Pickens.

    Although Van Jefferson has currently established himself as the undisputed No. 2, it would have been reassuring if he had made one or two big plays in the preseason. According to PFF, he totaled minus-2 yards after the catch on three passes caught on Saturday – only one of which was caught more than 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

    Calvin Austin III was not targeted (or given the ball) once in 14 snaps played on offense. Worse, he was penalized for a false start. (Although Austin has cemented the role of punt returner with a solid performance in that capacity.)

    Aside from Fitzpatrick, all of the team’s other wide receivers totaled nine catches for 51 yards, a 5.7-yard average that, quite frankly, isn’t good enough.

    3. Injury virus

    There was no immediate indication that running back Jaylen Warren’s hamstring injury is serious. But there was also no immediate confirmation that it wasn’t. Warren was not seen in the Steelers’ locker room after the game, whatever that means.

    Maybe Warren is fine. But the worst nightmare scenario for any preseason game is the loss of a key player. Rookie inside linebacker Payton Wilson would fall into that category. He left the game after a play early in the third quarter and was reportedly evaluated for a concussion.

    Steelers fans will surely be holding their breath for some good news, especially regarding Warren.

    Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 after covering Penn State football for two seasons. A native of Western Pennsylvania, he joined the Trib in 2012 after covering Pittsburgh sports for other media outlets for a decade. He can be reached at [email protected].

    LEAVE A RESPONSE

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Henry
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like

    ads