Chris Adamski stories, Page 42

The NFL announced finalists for its eight most notable football-related awards Thursday. The Pittsburgh Steelers had two, both for defense. One was widely expected; the other, a pleasant surprise. T.J. Watt was a finalist for AP Defensive Player of the Year for a fourth time. The NFL’s sacks leader in...

A week after most NFL training camps opened last summer, safety Trenton Thompson was little more than an unemployed ballplayer. “In my mind, I was prepping to get ready to play for the now-UFL, the United Football League,” Thompson said last week, referencing his mindset on the first day of...

T.J. Watt won’t find out if he will win a second AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award for another two weeks. But Wednesday, it was announced he lost out to Myles Garrett for a similar honor. Garrett, the Cleveland Browns’ star edge defender, was named the Professional Football...

The Pittsburgh Steelers continued to replenish their offseason roster, announcing the signing five players to reserve/future contracts Tuesday. Three of the signings are cornerbacks. Each of the five spent at least part of this past season on the Steelers’ practice squad: • Outside linebacker David Perales was among the undrafted...

An Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient was chosen to receive a trip to the Super Bowl as part of a promotion involving Pittsburgh Steelers star outside linebacker T.J. Watt. Wounded in 2011 while serving in Afghanistan, Army reservist Adam Alexander — like Watt — is a Wisconsin native. According...

Joey Porter Jr. began his rookie season as a subpackage defender for the Pittsburgh Steelers. By midseason, he was their “shutdown” No. 1 cornerback. On Tuesday, he was honored as one of the top rookies in the league. Porter Jr. was named to the Professional Football Writers of America all-rookie...

Los Angeles Rams pass-game coordinator Zac Robinson will interview with the Pittsburgh Steelers for their vacant offensive coordinator job, Sports Illustrated reported Monday. Robinson, 37, just completed his fifth season on the Rams’ staff under head coach Sean McVay. Following two seasons as assistant quarterbacks coach and one as assistant...

Only two players on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ current roster have played in a game for the team in the greater Washington, D.C., area. How long has it been since the Steelers played there? The team was called the Redskins. Two naming iterations later, the Steelers this year will make a...

Mike Tomlin isn’t exactly known as the type of coach who freely dispenses praise for young players. So when in answering the 58th question asked of him during his season-ending news conference last week, Tomlin didn’t restrain in extolling rookie Keeanu Benton, it opened eyes. “I think he’s capable of...

Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt will not participate in the NFL’s Pro Bowl games because of a knee injury that prevented him from playing in last week’s playoff game. The Cleveland Browns gave word of Watt’s absence via the announcement that two of their players — linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah...

The offseason coaching carousel has begun to spin, with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first assistant coach leaving the staff. The University of Nebraska hired Steelers offensive assistant Glenn Thomas as its co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the school announced via a release. Thomas, a veteran of more than two decades of...

Pittsburgh Steelers fans disappointed by their team’s season ending Monday woke up the next morning to word that NFL draft was exactly 100 days away. Rest assured many fans were already eagerly looking ahead to it and prognosticating whom the Steelers might take. While the draft is certainly a highlight...

The final full-squad team meeting for the 2023 edition of the Pittsburgh Steelers lasted all of about 20 minutes Tuesday. “Nothing groundbreaking,” star outside linebacker T.J. Watt said at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex less than 20 hours after the Steelers’ season ended with a playoff loss at the Buffalo...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — George Pickens wasn’t happy with the circumstances under which his second NFL season ended. But on whole, he was pleased with his own individual performance during the 2023 season. “Yeah, for sure,” Pickens said from the visitor’s locker room after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ wild-card playoff loss...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Mason Rudolph seemed almost as pained by finding the appropriate words to answer the question as he did by the result of Monday’s season-ending playoff loss. Still smarting after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 31-17 defeat to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card game that ended less than...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — In the postgame locker room after his second NFL season had just come to an end, George Pickens couldn’t bring himself to concentrate on much aside from the officiating during Monday’s playoff loss. “I am still stuck on this game right now, with the refs,” Pickens...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Linebacker Tyrel Dodson and cornerback Rasul Douglas were designated as inactive by the Buffalo Bills for Monday’s playoff game, making for four starters who are out against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bills on Friday announced that receiver Gabe Davis (knee) and safety Taylor Rapp (calf) would...

That hole the Pittsburgh Steelers figuratively dug themselves out of to qualify for the playoffs? That’s nothing compared to the literal shoveling necessary to facilitate playable enough conditions for the team to take part in their playoff opener in Orchard Park, N.Y. There was more than a foot of snow...

Damontae Kazee’s locker is two stalls over from Levi Wallace’s at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. Kazee seemingly was minding his own business while a five-minute interview was being conducted between Wallace and a pair of media members after the final practice of this past week. There was no reason to...

1. Seven of 16 Arguably no team should have been more pleased than the Pittsburgh Steelers when the NFL expanded its playoff field in 2020 from the top six to top seven from each conference. Seventh place in the AFC seems to suit the Steelers just fine. For the fourth...

Perhaps as much as three feet of snow. Possible wind gusts of more than 60 mph. Wind-chill factors well into negative numbers. It remains to be seen exactly how bad the weather ends up in Orchard Park, N.Y., for Sunday’s wild-card round playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo...

Born and raised in Arizona and after a college career at Alabama, Levi Wallace wasn’t so much thrown into the fire in the NFL as he was thrown into an icebox. Wallace spent his first four seasons with the Buffalo Bills. Now in his second season with the Pittsburgh Steelers,...