Steelers/NFL category, Page 306

For Friday’s “First Call,” Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Chase Claypool can’t get out of his own way. The Steelers may have to fight to keep Matt Canada on staff. And tackle Zach Banner seems optimistic about his future in Pittsburgh. All that and some college basketball news, too. Doubling down Steelers...

Tight end Kevin Rader and inside linebacker Tegray Scales, who each saw playing time on the active roster late in the season, were among 13 players the Pittsburgh Steelers signed to futures contracts Thursday. Also signed were wide receivers Anthony Johnson and Cody White; tackles Anthony Coyle, John Leglue and...

There are plenty of decisions that need to be made by the Pittsburgh Steelers during an offseason that began after this past Sunday’s playoff loss. A couple of the easier ones involve picking up fifth-year contract options. For the first time, the Steelers have a pair to exercise — and...

The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t waste time shaking up their coaching staff after their sudden exit from the AFC playoffs. The franchise announced Thursday that offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett and defensive backs coach Tom Bradley won’t have their contracts renewed for the 2021 season. The announcement...

Plenty of Steelers talk in Thursday’s “First Call.” Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster is denying that he’s already planning to find a bigger market in free agency. The Detroit radio host who advanced the “Kevin Colbert to the Lions” story admits where he went wrong. And we find out if the...

This is one of those moments where I get out of the way and let Steelers fans get after it. The team just allowed its season to end in ignominious, humiliating fashion to the Cleveland Browns on wild-card weekend 48-37. People are fed up with head coach Mike Tomlin, quarterback...

We all know about the “Tomlinisms” from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. His colorfully descriptive phrases to spin a sound bite. There’s usually a message underscoring those quotes, too. Truth and lessons underneath. The problem is, if you judge Tomlin by his own slogans, he hasn’t measured up to them...

Philadelphia fired coach Doug Pederson. He and the Eagles won the Super Bowl three years ago. Mike Tomlin, meanwhile, has a job for life in Pittsburgh. Tomlin has presided over late-season collapses in each of the last three years: The Steelers went from 7-2-1 to 9-6-1 and no playoffs in...

Kevin Colbert has made it known that at this point of his life, he prefers to work on a year-to-year basis as general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Coach Mike Tomlin said he has no reason to believe this is the year Colbert’s two-decade tenure with the Steelers ends. “I’ve...

The Steelers-Browns wild-card game set some record TV ratings. Penn Hills product Aaron Donald is trying to be ready for Sunday’s playoff game in Green Bay despite a painful injury. Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford is giving a hard sell on an offseason acquisition. And the gambling community is starting...

Say what you will about Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and his “the Browns is the Browns” quote. You may think that line was destructive bulletin board material before a playoff game. Or you may consider it a fleeting quote that didn’t even rise to the level of tepid trash...

The Browns are “clapping back” at Steelers receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool. Can you blame ‘em? Cleveland clubbed the Steelers 48-37 on Sunday night for its first playoff win since 1994. So Smith-Schuster’s pregame “the Browns is the Browns” line looks dumb. And Claypool’s TikTok video Monday saying that...

Tim Lester, a fullback known as the “Bus Driver” for his talent as lead blocker for Jerome Bettis with the Steelers from 1995-98, died Tuesday at age 52. According to a report in the Milton Herald, a newspaper in the Georgia town where Lester founded a youth football program after...

The Pittsburgh Steelers waived special-teamer Trey Edmunds on Tuesday, the first of what promise to be many personnel moves as they embark on their offseason after Sunday’s playoff defeat. A running back by trade, Edmunds is the older brother of Steelers safety Terrell Edmunds. Trey Edmunds ended the season on...

Though the organization could figure out a way to stay largely status quo, there is potential that the coming months could prove to be among the most transformative offseasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers in recent decades. Plenty of major decisions need to be made, not the least of which related...

There’s more inopportune trash talk from a Steelers player about the Cleveland Browns. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is thinking long-term about his future. A few former Steelers may be in the mix for the Philadelphia Eagles head coaching job. And former Penn State coach Bill O’Brien is getting a new...

In my 20 years of covering Pittsburgh sports and 46 years of following them as a fan, I’ve never seen a Pittsburgh team get off to a worse start in a postseason game than the Steelers did in the postseason loss to the Browns Sunday night. They got down 28-0...

Like much of the success on the football field, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offseason will depend on the quarterback. Whether Ben Roethlisberger returns for an 18th season will be the biggest issue the Steelers face as they begin plotting a course for 2021. Beyond the franchise’s quarterback’s declining play down the...

A day after their season ended with a 48-37 upset loss to the Cleveland Browns in an AFC wild-card game, the Pittsburgh Steelers closed UPMC Rooney Sports Complex because of covid-19 concerns. “We have sent home our coaching staff, players and other staff members out of caution after we had...

Five things we learned from Browns 48, Steelers 37: 1. Slip sliding away Once a team known for strong finishes, the Steelers experienced a late-season collapse for the third season in a row. In 2018, it was four losses in a five-game stretch that resulted in the Steelers missing the...

During that agonizing 28-0 first quarter of Sunday night’s Steelers playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns, a forlorn fan sent me this tweet. Starting to feel nostalgic for all those years when we simply failed to make it to the playoffs.— Rob (@WildernessRob) January 11, 2021 Sir, I hate to...

Sunday night was “last call” for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But that doesn’t mean we stop doing “First Call” at “Breakfast With Benz.” Apparently, Steelers executive Omar Khan was closer to getting that Houston Texans general manager job than we thought. The Detroit Lions are still trying to bring back current...

It was just the latest in a long list of games that the Steelers couldn’t possibly lose, which inevitably they lost. To Washington and the Cincinnati Bengals this year. To the New York Jets last year. To the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos back in 2018. To Ryan Mallett and...

Long after the Cleveland Browns joyously left the Heinz Field playing surface and almost all of his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates had sulked their way into the locker room, Ben Roethlisberger sat on a heated bench on the sideline. His longest-tenured teammate, Maurkice Pouncey, eventually joined him. NBC cameras caught what...