Steelers/NFL category, Page 398
Steelers 2020 free-agency primer: Difficult decisions loom
Instead of focusing on ways to stop and attack the New England Patriots for a playoff game this week, the Pittsburgh Steelers will turn their attention to 2020. “When you are not in the tournament,” coach Mike Tomlin said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday, “it allots you more time...
Penn State’s Marcus Allen makes 2019 Steelers debut in Week 17, looks ahead to 2020
It took until the year’s final week and the season’s final game, but Marcus Allen made his 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers season debut. The Penn State alumnus and 2018 fifth-round pick played special teams during Sunday’s season-ending loss to the Baltimore Ravens. “I just feel blessed to get another opportunity to...
How much of Mike Tomlin’s season-ending press conference should give Steelers’ fans hope?
Fellow TribLive columnist Kevin Gorman joins me for our last wrap up of Mike Tomlin’s weekly press conferences in 2019. Given that the Steelers have been eliminated short of the playoffs for a second straight year, the next time we do this may be August in Latrobe, and the “Hard...
Tim Benz: Plenty for Steelers to fix that Ben Roethlisberger can’tVideo
When assessing the 2020 Steelers offense, the easy thing to say is, “Ben Roethlisberger will be back, and that’ll fix everything.” Given how good the defense could be again, what a dream scenario that would be! Too bad it isn’t close to true. Yes, Roethlisberger will fix a lot. Red-zone...
Top 5 stories in Pittsburgh sports in 2019
Much like a year ago, the 2019 Steelers season ended in disappointment when the team fell short of reaching the playoffs. Also like 2018, the past year was filled with captivating storylines in Pittsburgh sports. Here’s a few of the most memorable: 1. Quarterback carousel Life without Ben Roethlisberger was...
Kevin Gorman: Wrapping a bow on season of adversity for Mike Tomlin’s SteelersVideo
Mike Tomlin was standing before us on New Year’s Eve with an 8-8 record and a second consecutive season of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the outside looking in on the NFL playoffs. The Steelers coach wasn’t ready to wrap a bow on 2019. Nor was he willing to wallow in...
Mike Tomlin won’t be ‘shocked’ if there are changes to his coaching staff
Mike Tomlin began conducting exit interviews with his Pittsburgh Steelers players Tuesday, meeting first with players on the practice squad, rookies and those with expiring contracts. After talking to his veteran players, Tomlin will move on to evaluating his assistant coaches. Following an 8-8 season, changes to Tomlin’s staff could...
Mike Tomlin: Keeping Bud Dupree ‘a priority’ for SteelersVideo
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season is over, and one of the first landmarks of an NFL offseason is free agency. Coach Mike Tomlin left little ambiguity regarding his feelings toward the Steelers’ highest-profile pending free agent. “He’s a priority of for us,” Tomlin said of outside linebacker Bud Dupree. No matter...
Mike Tomlin ‘comfortable’ with Mason Rudolph serving as Steelers’ backup QB
The top two quarterbacks for the Pittsburgh Steelers finished the season on injured reserve, and they will resume that hierarchy once they return to health. That was the word from coach Mike Tomlin, who gave an early endorsement to Mason Rudolph serving as the backup to franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger...
Steelers on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’? Mike Tomlin hilariously acknowledges it’s possibleVideo
The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of five teams eligible to appear on HBO’s annual late-summer football series, “Hard Knocks.” If coach Mike Tomlin wasn’t aware of this prior, he was made aware of it during his season wrap-up news conference Tuesday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. And the veteran, typically...
Steelers’ Mike Tomlin ‘little bit numb’ over end of seasonVideo
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held a season-ending session with media members Tuesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side. Tomlin opened by appreciating the efforts of his players. But said he’s still “a little bit numb” over the way the season ended and the way...
First Call: Antonio Brown rips JuJu Smith-Schuster; Jets coach dismissive of Le’Veon Bell
As has been the case for most of 2019, the year couldn’t end without another day of former Steelers Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell being in the headlines. Brown couldn’t pass up one last chance to take a jab at former teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster on social media. Boo Boo Shoester...
Tim Benz: Don’t inflate Steelers’ mediocre 8-8 finish
If you looked skyward in Pittsburgh around 2:45 p.m. Monday, you saw a gorgeous double rainbow over the city. I was heading to the North Side at the time, and I felt like I was driving right into it. Both arches appeared to end directly in Heinz Field’s parking lot....
Tim Benz, Mark Madden break down Steelers’ biggest problem areas, Penguins’ hot streakVideo
What do you make of an 8-8 season? Given what the Pittsburgh Steelers went through this season with the loss of Ben Roethlisberger and other injuries, 8-8 wouldn’t seem to be too bad. But, as Tim Benz and Mark Madden point out, the Steelers were in a good position to...
Kevin Gorman: Steelers can’t bank on Roethlisberger’s return meaning success
If this season taught the Pittsburgh Steelers anything, it should be that nothing is guaranteed. Not a winning record. Not the playoffs. Not even strong quarterback play, which was the one thing the Steelers could count on for the previous 15 seasons. The Steelers learned how hard it is to...
Steelers’ Devlin Hodges reflects on ‘wild’ year, doesn’t duck need for improvement
It wasn’t until teammate James Conner urged him to stop and consider the big picture of what transpired during his 2019 that quarterback Devlin Hodges took the time to fully appreciate all he’d been through and what all he’d accomplished. “It’s been wild,” Hodges said on the day after the...
Steelers’ Mason Rudolph has 6-8 week rehab after ‘procedure’ on shoulderVideo
His left arm in a black elastic sling, Mason Rudolph walked through the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room a day after a season ended with him on the injured reserve list. Rudolph said that after he injured his shoulder during the third quarter of last week’s loss at the New York...
Mark Madden: Horrific ‘Duck’ Hodges killed Steelers’ seasonVideo
The “Duck” era has concluded. Or should that be “Duck” error? Once it got to that point, the Steelers had no choice (or chance). The team’s season was dead the minute Ben Roethlisberger got hurt — and not just because they lost a two-time Super Bowl champion, a nailed-on Hall-of-Famer...
Steelers re-sign OLB Tuzar Skipper, ink 11 practice-squad players to reserve/future deals
The Pittsburgh Steelers signed passrushing specialist Tuzar Skipper for two more seasons, and they formally kept all 11 of their practice-squad players on the day after their season ended. Skipper started and finished the season on the Steelers’ 53-man roster after making the team following a rookie minicamp tryout. He...
Will the price be right for Bud Dupree to return to Steelers in 2020?Video
Teammates want Bud Dupree to return at outside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020. The front office surely wants to keep employing a player who set career highs in nearly every category this season. And Dupree wants to come back — at the right price. Therein lies the rub...
Artie Burns bids farewell to Steelers, as former first-round pick plans to leave in free agency
Artie Burns packed his belongings into a garbage bag at his locker stall on Monday afternoon, knowing full well that it was his last day inside the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room. The 24-year-old cornerback, the No. 25 overall pick by the Steelers in the 2016 NFL Draft, wasn’t shy about...
Barack Obama names Dan Rooney book as a favorite of 2019
Barack Obama included a Pittsburgh gem in his list of top books from of the year. The former president and avid reader shared via Twitter 19 titles that impressed him. One of his sports favorites was Jim Rooney’s “A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney’s Story from the Super Bowl...
5 thoughts from Steelers’ season-ending loss to Ravens
Five things we learned from Ravens 28, Steelers 10: 1. Repeat performance It wasn’t just that the Steelers scored one offensive touchdown for the eighth time in the past nine games. It was the way the offense stagnated more than at any other time this season that stood out in...
Tim Benz, Mark Madden rip Steelers’ season-ending disaster, ‘Hard Knocks’ possibility, offseason challenges
When you need optimism and positivity in a time of sorrow for the Pittsburgh Steelers, you turn to Mark Madden and Tim Benz. We are nothing if not a beacon of hope in your time of need. For instance, in today’s “Madden Monday” podcast about how the Steelers will miss...
Tim Benz: Final 2019 airing of grievances after Ravens humiliate and eliminate SteelersVideo
The Steelers’ 2019 season is over. Technically, so is Festivus. But that’s not going to stop us from engaging in the “Airing of Grievances” about the Steelers one more time before the calendar turns to 2020. Believe me, after what we saw in Baltimore to wrap up the year, there...
