Chris Adamski stories, Page 91

Covered in sweat in the immediate aftermath of what was his fifth session with the Pittsburgh Steelers since being cleared to practice off of the injured reserve list last week, Zach Banner beamed. “I just had a really good practice,” the offensive tackle said Thursday. That would seem to indicate...

For the first time during the regular season, the Pittsburgh Steelers starting offensive tackles were together for a full practice Wednesday. Chuks Okorafor was designated as a full participant on the injury report for the first time since entering NFL concussion protocol during the Sept. 26 loss to the Cincinnati...

Running back Anthony McFarland returned to Pittsburgh Steelers practice Wednesday, signaling an activation to the active roster and season debut could be coming by the end of the month. McFarland remains on the injured reserve list. His presence at practice opens up a 21-day window within which the Steelers must...

Neither began his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but as two of the team’s most experienced players Joe Haden and Trai Turner have seen it all in the NFL. Mostly, they’ve seen losing. Haden’s career began with seven consecutive losing seasons as part of the Cleveland Browns. Turner has been...

Joe Haden has seen the video of the special teams offsides call that he was flagged for Sunday. And he still is certain he was onside for the field goal snap that Minkah Fitzpatrick blocked and returned for a touchdown. “Yes,” Haden said Monday, “for sure.” It was a critical...

Cody White was one of the unheralded and previously-unknown standouts of Pittsburgh Steelers training camp. For the second consecutive week, the wide receiver is getting a chance to play early during the regular season. White and offensive tackle Chaz Green were elevated from the practice squad to the active gameday...

They have been in the NFL a combined 35 seasons, their respective one-team tenures concurrently spanning four presidential administrations. With more than 300 combined wins and three Super Bowl rings, each has served as the face of a football-crazed town for a generation. Somehow, though, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger...

The only healthy starting wide receiver the Pittsburgh Steelers had when their last game ended is not going to be available to them when their next game starts. Chase Claypool will not play in Sunday’s meeting with the Green Bay Packers because of a hamstring injury. A team spokesman announced...

1. Keeping it outside Plenty has been made of Ben Roethlisberger’s tendency to throw short and check down. His 4.3-yard average air yards per completion is third lowest in the league among starting quarterbacks. But even when Roethlisberger has thrown downfield, it has been exclusively to the outside. According to...

“Blitzburgh,” no more. So far this season, the Pittsburgh Steelers are taking an uncharacteristically passive approach on defense. But will the Steelers’ lack of blitzing over the first three games of the season continue? Members of the defense are playing coy. “That’s the really cool thing about being here,” edge...

Like most boys who grew up in Wisconsin, T.J. Watt was a Green Bay Packers fan growing up. So perhaps it’s not surprising that he was a fan of the Packer who won the NFL’s MVP award each of the first three years Watt was alive. “I think I was...

Like his head coach, coordinator and quarterback, Pittsburgh Steelers rookie running back Najee Harris stuck to the theme of staying the course when it comes to improving the team’s struggling offense. “It’s just people just blowing some stuff out of proportion,” Harris said after practice Friday at UPMC Rooney Sports...

Some fans have been wanting the Pittsburgh Steelers to make a change along their offensive line. One is coming, but not by choice. Right tackle Chuks Okorafor will not play in Sunday’s game at the Green Bay Packers, the team announced via its league-mandated injury report Friday. Okorafor is in...

Chase Claypool was revealed to be the third of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ trio of starting wide receivers to be dealing with injury this week when he was a limited participant in Thursday’s practice because of a hamstring injury. The Steelers finished this past week’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals without...

Devin Bush has played in two meaningful football games over the past 50 weeks, and he’s coming off major surgery. But after a game in which he did not manage a solo tackle as a starting inside linebacker, it’s fair to evaluate Bush’s play as less than peak. “If you...

With regard to the myriad early-season problems afflicting the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line, the first step was taken Wednesday to one of the possible solutions. Zach Banner returned to practice, the team announced. On injured reserve since the end of training camp as his rehabilitation from surgery on his right...

In the wake of his offense producing just four touchdowns over the season’s first three games and ranking among the NFL’s bottom quartile in several prominent offensive categories, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger relayed a reassuring, stay-the-course message Wednesday. “We are a group that is close, I believe,” Roethlisberger said...

The injury-depleted Pittsburgh Steelers appear to have dodged at least one bullet when it comes to their starters. Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster is “day-to-day” with bruised ribs after tests indicated the lack of a more serious injury, according to a report from the NFL Network. Smith-Schuster left Sunday’s loss to...

Mike Hilton has taken part in eight games between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals. He’s walked off the field a winner after seven of them. Sunday’s win, though, had a different feel because it was Hilton’s first in this AFC North rivalry while he was a member of the...

Nine of the 22 touchdowns Tyler Boyd scored during a standout college career at Pitt came at Heinz Field. Boyd also won four WPIAL championship games played at the facility, scoring three touchdowns in the 2011 title game win for Clairton. But over a six-year NFL career that previously featured...

The actual word he used was slightly less tasteful, but the way unit captain Cameron Heyward described the Pittsburgh Steelers defense’s effort Sunday was that it “stunk.” Safety Terrell Edmunds termed it “not acceptable at all.” Those assessments belie the statistics associated with Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The...

Leading receiver Tee Higgins is among three Cincinnati Bengals starters who are not in uniform for Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers because of injury. Higgins, who has a shoulder injury, was officially listed as doubtful to play on the Bengals’ league-mandated injury report. Right guard Xavier Su’a-Filo (knee) was,...

Last Sunday, Ben Roethlisberger 10 times in 7 minutes took the blame for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ struggling offense. Four days later, offensive coordinator Matt Canada maintained a similar pace of accountability, referencing in some way the need to get “better” 14 times in his 9-minute session with media. By Friday,...