Chris Adamski stories, Page 152
Back nesting with Steelers: Devlin ‘Duck’ Hodges returns to practice
After migrating south for a week and a half, “Duck” was back in his nest at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. Signed to the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad Tuesday, quarterback Devlin “Duck Dynasty” Hodges got plenty of practice reps Wednesday with starter Ben Roethlisberger taking his typical veteran’s day off. A...
Steelers trade backup QB Josh Dobbs
‘Duck Dynasty’ is back with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Devlin Hodges was signed by the team Monday to serve as the No. 3 quarterback after Josh Dobbs was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the day. Hodges impressed during training camp after signing with the team following a tryout at...
History shows Week 1 losses don’t doom Steelers’ entire seasonVideo
About 14 hours after a loss that had few silver linings for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bud Dupree managed to find one. “Nobody was getting decapitated,” Dupree said Monday in reviewing a 33-3 loss at the New England Patriots the night before, “or nothing like that.” Indeed, each of the 53...
Steelers injury reports: Joe Haden has sprained AC joint, JuJu Smith-Schuster’s toe ‘OK’
Of the four former Pro Bowl Pittsburgh Steelers who were injured during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s season-opening loss, three were in the locker room at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on Monday afternoon. Cornerback Joe Haden (shoulder), linebacker T.J. Watt (hip) and receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (toe) were spotted — seemingly...
Steelers’ Chuks Okorafor unsure why he was Sunday inactive, takes it in stride
Sunday, for the first time in his NFL career, Chuks Okorafor was not activated to play during a Pittsburgh Steelers game. The 2018 third-round pick, apparently, has been surpassed on the offensive tackle depth chart by Zach Banner. “It is what it is,” Okorafor said Monday at UPMC Rooney Sports...
Steelers trade No. 3 quarterback Josh Dobbs to Jaguars for 5th-round pickVideo
A week after Mason Rudolph was named backup quarterback, Josh Dobbs’ tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers is over. Dobbs was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a fifth-round pick Monday afternoon, ending his tenure with the Steelers at 2 ½ years since he was drafted with a 2017 fourth-round pick....
Four Downs: Steelers embrace 5-WR sets
Four Downs is a weekly feature composed of quick-hit thoughts and analysis on the Steelers and the NFL. 1. High five (wides) Lacking depth at tight end? Feel good about everyone in the wide receivers position room? The logical and intuitive answer is to use more wide receivers and fewer...
Steelers add WR Johnny Holton to active roster, release rookie LB Tuzar Skipper
The Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday signed a veteran wide receiver who had recently been released by the Oakland Raiders. No, not that one. Veteran receiver and special teams standout Johnny Holton was promoted to the Steelers’ 53-man roster from the practice squad. The speedster could serve as the No. 6...
Steelers have tradition of losing to Tom Brady at Gillette StadiumVideo
Aside from a 10-story lighthouse beyond one of the end zones and adjacent pedestrian overpass modeled after Boston’s iconic Longfellow Bridge, Gillette Stadium has no distinguishing features. The New England Patriots’ home field ranks 22nd among the 31 NFL venues in seating capacity, and it will be right in the...
Johnny Holton happy to stick with Steelers on practice squad, staying ready for call-up
Turns out, the delay in naming Johnny Holton to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ practice squad earlier this week was a simple matter of family and logistics. A veteran of parts of three seasons and 32 NFL games with the Oakland Raiders, Holton opened eyes with the Steelers during a strong preseason...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Xavier Grimble out to prove Steelers right not adding tight ends
Xavier Grimble wasn’t necessarily worried he might be a casualty during cutdown day this past weekend. But that didn’t mean the veteran tight end wasn’t keenly aware — too much so, for his liking — of what might have happened as the Pittsburgh Steelers set their 53-man roster. “I mean,...
Steelers notes: Ola Adeniyi returns to practice, Javon Hargrave up next for contract extension?
There will apparently be no repeat of last season when it comes to Ola Adneniyi and the injured reserve list. The second-year outside linebacker returned to Pittsburgh Steelers practice three weeks after undergoing a surgical procedure to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee. Adeniyi told reporters he felt...
Chris Boswell keeps same mindset in officially retaining Steelers’ kicking job, earning bonus
Chris Boswell had 2 million reasons to hold on to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ kicking job. He insists none of them factored in to him ultimately doing so. “If I’m thinking about money every time I am kicking,” Boswell said after the first practice of the regular season Monday, “something is...
Kameron Kelly sweats Steelers cutdown day, gets 1st-team reps 2 days later
The wild ride — and meteoric rise — continues for Kameron Kelly. A former Alliance of American Football player who was cut by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent last year, Kelly not only made the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 53-man roster, he could be in line to start their...
Steelers, cornerback Joe Haden agree to 2-year contract extension
A week before their self-imposed deadline, the Pittsburgh Steelers took care of their biggest — and perhaps only remaining — priority regarding locking up a player with a contract extension. Cornerback Joe Haden and the team agreed on a two-year, $22 million extension, a league source confirmed Sunday evening. Haden...
Steelers counting on Moncrief for more than on-field production
Donte Moncrief was sporting a bushy black beard when he reported to Saint Vincent for training camp six weeks ago. But when he looked around the Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receivers room, it might have made him feel like a graybeard. Moncrief is no grizzled vet, but he is by far...
WPIAL alumni Trevon Mathis, Kevin Rader named to Steelers practice squad, Sutton Smith is not
WPIAL alumni Trevon Mathis and Kevin Rader were among the 10 players the Pittsburgh Steelers named to their season-opening practice squad Sunday. A cornerback from Woodland Hills High School and the University of Toledo, Mathis was back home in Homewood when he signed with the Steelers 2 ½ weeks ago....
Steelers’ Kameron Kelly carves out role in secondary
Less than three weeks after joining the Pittsburgh Steelers as part of a group of former AAF players, Kameron Kelly headed to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex to get in a workout. Kelly was new enough to the NFL that he didn’t even know the offseason rules — the collective bargaining...
Tuzar Skipper makes final case for Steelers roster in preseason finale
The late-April draft came and went. So, too, did a Kansas City Chiefs rookie minicamp tryout that Tuzar Skipper attended. And a CFL tryout for the Hamilton TigerCats. “They said I did pretty good,” Skipper said, referring to TigerCats management. “They were gonna call me back if I didn’t hear...
