Steelers/NFL category, Page 407
Analysis: Chris Boswell’s bounce-back season encouraging sign for Steelers special teams
The width between NFL goal posts is 18 feet, 6 inches. If that distance looked smaller than a parking space to Chris Boswell in 2018, it had to look wider than the Allegheny River last season. The biggest special teams question mark for the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into the season,...
Analysis: Steelers offense needs more than a healthy Ben Roethlisberger in 2020
The worst fears for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense were realized in the second week of the season when quarterback Ben Roethlisberger exited at halftime against the Seattle Seahawks and never played another down. With his departure, the Steelers went from possessing one of the top passing offenses in 2018 to...
2020 could play out in many ways for young Steelers OL Chuks Okorafor
Chuks Okorafor laughed. It was a question for which he had no answer. What is the Pittsburgh Steelers’ coaching staff’s plans for him for the 2020 season? “I have no idea yet where I stand in terms of whatever,” the young offensive lineman said the day after the season ended...
Prosecutors back off felony claim against Patriots owner Robert Kraft
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lawyers for the state of Florida have backed down from a recent claim that New England Patriots football team owner Robert Kraft committed a felony prostitution offense a year ago. In a court filing Thursday night, Florida prosecutors revised their position in an appeal concerning video...
Steelers’ Minkah Fitzpatrick, Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt voted 1st-team All-Pro
The Pittsburgh Steelers defense was one of the best in the NFL this season. On Friday, the league’s highest individual accolades suggested as much. Three Steelers were named first-team All-Pro by the Associated Press: Edge rusher T.J. Watt, interior lineman Cameron Heyward and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. The Steelers were the...
Steelers 2019 offense among most impotent for franchise over past half-century
We knew the Pittsburgh Steelers offense this past season was bad. But how bad? One of the worst since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger. Without Antonio Brown (traded), Le’Veon Bell (free agency) and Ben Roethlisberger (injury in Week 2), the Steelers finished 30th in the NFL in yards (276.8 per game)...
Mark Madden: Randy Fichtner should not be Steelers’ sacrificial lamb
Before it started, the Steelers’ season had promise. Then Ben Roethlisberger got hurt. Then the Steelers were 1-4. Then they were 8-5. Then the Steelers collapsed and missed the playoffs. The 2019 campaign was very literally up and down, then up, then down again. Should you be disappointed the Steelers...
Javon Hargrave wants to return to Steelers, seems resigned to fact he probably won’tVideo
At one point during what was a reflective Sunday for Javon Hargrave, the defensive lineman slipped up while speaking to media in the M&T Bank Stadium visitors locker room. Asked about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ outlook for 2020, Hargrave’s initial choice of pronoun spoke volumes — so much so Hargrave seemed...
Former Steelers Troy Polamalu, Alan Faneca among 15 Hall of Fame finalists
Troy Polamalu is one vote away from making the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. The former Pittsburgh Steelers safety was among 15 players named a finalist for the Hall of Fame on Thursday. Polamalu spent 12 seasons with the Steelers, making the Pro Bowl...
Analysis: Future is bright for play-making Steelers defense
It seemed like a curious decision at the time. On Sept. 16, the day it was announced quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would be out for the season because of an elbow injury, the Pittsburgh Steelers made a bold move. However, it wasn’t to address Roethlisberger’s injury and fortify the most important...
No receiver drew higher rate of pass interference penalties than Steelers’ Deon CainVideo
In his short stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Deon Cain has shown propensity for making some big plays. And in 2019, he also showed himself particularly adept at at least one specific skill. No receiver in the NFL this season drew a higher rate of pass interference penalties from opponents...
Steelers’ mascot Steely McBeam recreated in butter at Pa. Farm ShowVideo
HARRISBURG — The butter sculpture for this year’s Pennsylvania Farm Show was unveiled Thursday, featuring three of the state’s professional sports team mascots. This year’s sculpture, crafted from about 1,000 pounds of donated butter, shows Steely McBeam, Gritty and Swoop — mascots for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Flyers and...
After earning his way into Steelers lineup late in 2019, Justin Layne aims higher in 2020
When the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff made the conscious decision to activate cornerback Justin Layne for the final six games of the season — choosing the rookie over veteran Artie Burns — it was a landmark moment in Layne’s young NFL career. After all, it signified that the Steelers viewed...
First Call: Le’Veon Bell’s future with Jets; Antonio Brown vents about Saints; Brandon Saad to Penguins talk
The first “First Call” of 2020 picks up where 2019 left off—a lot of talk about Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. Both of the former Steelers were in the headlines on New Year’s Day. So we get caught up on the latest ax to grind for A.B. and the latest...
U mad, bro? Readers seething over Steelers’ elimination, Mike Tomlin, ‘Hard Knocks’ prospect
Whenever the Steelers get knocked out of the playoff race, you know things are going to get spicy. This week’s “U mad, bro?” lives up (or is it down?) to expectations with heat coming from all directions. No one is safe. Not Mike Tomlin. Not the organization. Not HBO. Not...
Steelers 2020 free-agency primer: Difficult decisions loom
Instead of focusing on ways to stop and attack the New England Patriots for a playoff game this week, the Pittsburgh Steelers will turn their attention to 2020. “When you are not in the tournament,” coach Mike Tomlin said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday, “it allots you more time...
Penn State’s Marcus Allen makes 2019 Steelers debut in Week 17, looks ahead to 2020
It took until the year’s final week and the season’s final game, but Marcus Allen made his 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers season debut. The Penn State alumnus and 2018 fifth-round pick played special teams during Sunday’s season-ending loss to the Baltimore Ravens. “I just feel blessed to get another opportunity to...
How much of Mike Tomlin’s season-ending press conference should give Steelers’ fans hope?
Fellow TribLive columnist Kevin Gorman joins me for our last wrap up of Mike Tomlin’s weekly press conferences in 2019. Given that the Steelers have been eliminated short of the playoffs for a second straight year, the next time we do this may be August in Latrobe, and the “Hard...
Tim Benz: Plenty for Steelers to fix that Ben Roethlisberger can’tVideo
When assessing the 2020 Steelers offense, the easy thing to say is, “Ben Roethlisberger will be back, and that’ll fix everything.” Given how good the defense could be again, what a dream scenario that would be! Too bad it isn’t close to true. Yes, Roethlisberger will fix a lot. Red-zone...
Top 5 stories in Pittsburgh sports in 2019
Much like a year ago, the 2019 Steelers season ended in disappointment when the team fell short of reaching the playoffs. Also like 2018, the past year was filled with captivating storylines in Pittsburgh sports. Here’s a few of the most memorable: 1. Quarterback carousel Life without Ben Roethlisberger was...
Kevin Gorman: Wrapping a bow on season of adversity for Mike Tomlin’s SteelersVideo
Mike Tomlin was standing before us on New Year’s Eve with an 8-8 record and a second consecutive season of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the outside looking in on the NFL playoffs. The Steelers coach wasn’t ready to wrap a bow on 2019. Nor was he willing to wallow in...
Mike Tomlin won’t be ‘shocked’ if there are changes to his coaching staff
Mike Tomlin began conducting exit interviews with his Pittsburgh Steelers players Tuesday, meeting first with players on the practice squad, rookies and those with expiring contracts. After talking to his veteran players, Tomlin will move on to evaluating his assistant coaches. Following an 8-8 season, changes to Tomlin’s staff could...
Mike Tomlin: Keeping Bud Dupree ‘a priority’ for SteelersVideo
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season is over, and one of the first landmarks of an NFL offseason is free agency. Coach Mike Tomlin left little ambiguity regarding his feelings toward the Steelers’ highest-profile pending free agent. “He’s a priority of for us,” Tomlin said of outside linebacker Bud Dupree. No matter...
Mike Tomlin ‘comfortable’ with Mason Rudolph serving as Steelers’ backup QB
The top two quarterbacks for the Pittsburgh Steelers finished the season on injured reserve, and they will resume that hierarchy once they return to health. That was the word from coach Mike Tomlin, who gave an early endorsement to Mason Rudolph serving as the backup to franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger...
Steelers on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’? Mike Tomlin hilariously acknowledges it’s possibleVideo
The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of five teams eligible to appear on HBO’s annual late-summer football series, “Hard Knocks.” If coach Mike Tomlin wasn’t aware of this prior, he was made aware of it during his season wrap-up news conference Tuesday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. And the veteran, typically...
