After losing Fautanu for the year last year, I thought we were staring down the barrel of little-to-no reps for our first-round pick for a second consecutive year, but it seems as though we’ve dodged a bullet.

Thankfully, he spoke specifically about being eager to see the starters in the secondary get some reps together in an effort to aid in their “cohesion” and “communication”. Assuming nothing happens to derail that, we should get our first look at JPJ, Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay, and DeShon Elliot together in a game-like setting.

He’s physically talented enough to kinda freeze offensive linemen and move them out of his way to play the run. He can certainly improve above the shoulders, and I have no doubts he will, but that ability to impose his will is why we spent a first rounder on him. I love it.

On Thursday, the Steelers and Buccaneers got together in Pittsburgh for a joint practice ahead of their preseason week two matchup tomorrow evening. In these final days leading up to the regular season, I think these joint practices against unfamiliar faces are absolutely critical to team development, and I’m happy that the Steelers participate in them.

With training camp now in the rearview mirror, we’ve gained a pretty good understanding of what our 53-man roster will look like. Of course, there will still be some parody over the next few weeks with some of those fringe guys, but the top-end talent on this team is undeniable and it has forced me to revisit my expectations for this team.

• Idk how many of yinz were relegated to the Jaguar’s broadcast team for this game, but holy shit that was painful. 

As excited as I am to be gearing up for an actual Steelers football game, some of the more exciting (potential) storylines have already been removed from the equation due to injury, or coaches' decisions. Players that will not be suiting up include: Aaron Rodgers, T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, Jalen Ramsey, Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig, Isaac Seumalo, and more.

I’m not here to call Calvin Austin III a world-beater, and I am of the mindset that the Steelers would be better off adding another weapon at receiver before the regular season begins. With that being said, 19 has earned his spot on the depth chart.

I really hope defense still wins championships.

The Steelers’ players will have today off before returning to the practice field tomorrow at 1:55 eastern, the first padded practice of the season. With a small break in the action, I figured now would be a great time to pass out some flowers.

Does the sun seem to be shining a little brighter today? Did you wake up feeling like your problems are a little less important? Like suddenly everything is going to be ok? Football season is back, and the stairway to seven begins, yet again, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

It’s true that the sheer amount of information available to fans and coaches has grown exponentially in the last decade alone, which I think is excellent for the game of football. With that being said, it is sometimes O.K. to overlook what the numbers tell you if your eyeballs are telling you a different story. As is the case with Mr. Patrick Queen. 

News broke earlier this afternoon that the Steelers and T.J. Watt agreed to a three-year contract extension that includes $108M guaranteed, tying him to the team through the 2028 season. Woosah Steelers Nation.

Perhaps he will be asked to play some outside corner for us, especially when Slay and/or JPJ come off the field. Perhaps he will be asked to play a ton outside. Either way, he’s still an extremely capable cover corner, so I’m not worried about it. Here’s him (above) going step-for-step with DK Metcalf with basically no safety help. Geno Smith looked that way, too, but didn’t like what he saw. If you put your average corner in that exact same situation, Geno Smith is throwing that ball and giving DK a chance. This, however, is Jalen Ramsey. 

We could very well look back on this move (really, all the moves we’ve made this offseason) as necessary to preserve the culture as we build around our recent and future draft picks. Also, if you asked me this morning what the team’s biggest needs were, I would’ve said NB, QB, WR. You can go ahead and check NB off that list, for now.

Probably the biggest soundbite that came out of this Aaron Rodgers Tuesday came when Boston Connor asked if this would be Aaron Rodgers last year in the NFL, to which he responded: “Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is it. Ya know, that’s why we just did a one-year deal.”

Alexander was Grady Brown’s assistant with the Steelers in 2022 and 2023, before pursuing an opportunity with the Raiders in 2024. He will return to the Steelers for the 2025 season in a familiar capacity, but with some added responsibility.

According to Derrick Bell from Steelers Now, Elliot’s extension makes him the 30th highest paid safety in the league, which is tremendous value for a guy that performs the way he does on the football field, and also says all the right things about carrying the torch for all the great Steelers that came before him.

Like many NFL teams, the Steelers held their first practice of mandatory minicamp today, which gave us a sneak peak at some of the storylines that figure to dominate our algorithms for the next few weeks as we brace ourselves for training camp.

Even though Will Howard doesn’t have elite arm talent, that doesn’t mean he’s relegated to journeyman QB hell at the NFL level. He’s got a few things going for him that can take his game to the next level if he hones in on them in the NFL; in fact, he stands on two of those things. Howard’s dual-threat-ability can be a forgotten part of his game…but you better keep a spy on that big sumbitch.