From 3,000 miles away, there was one of the almost 8 million television viewers whom Spencer Anderson was thinking about most during his debut playing football in Europe.

“Every time I came in,” the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman said of last week’s game in Dublin, “I would yell to the ref, ‘Grandma!’ because he had come up to me during a TV timeout and was like, ‘Is your grandmother watching?’

“I was like, ‘Yeah.’ So he goes, ‘Well, I gotta let your grandmother know you’re reporting eligible.’

“So once he blew the whistle, he would let the TV (audience know over his microphone). And after the fifth or sixth time I reported, it was just, ‘Grandma, grandma!’ ”

A third-year player for the Steelers, Anderson was yelling for his Nana a full 17 times during the game against the Minnesota Vikings. That is the most the Steelers have deployed a so-called “jumbo” tight end for a game in six years.

A few years after Zach Banner became a cult hero among Steelers fans as the 2019 team’s “Mr. Eligible,” the usage of a sixth offensive lineman was back in a big way for the Steelers. And it’s probably not a coincidence that what resulted was the team’s best rushing performance of the season.

“Obviously, our focus was to get the run game going, and tight end-side runs were going to be huge this week,” Anderson said this week. “And obviously, I thought it went well.”

Against the Vikings while using “big” personnel, the Steelers more than doubled their yards per game average to that point of the season (63.0). They had 131 rushing yards in the 24-21 victory.

Anderson’s heavy deployment wasn’t the only thing different about the Steelers’ run-game plan against Minnesota. The Steelers also leaned on massive blocking tight end Darnell Washington (48 snaps) far more than their receive-first, block-second, bigger-name tight ends, Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith. They also had Connor Heyward line up at fullback more often than he had all season.

Proof that it worked came in a 4.5 yards per carry average with a backup running back (Kenneth Gainwell) after starter Jaylen Warren was a gameday scratch because of a knee injury. The Steelers had been at 2.8 yards per carry through the first three games of the season but identified an opportunity for improvement against the Minnesota defense.

“We thought we had the advantage there,” offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said of going “big” with their personnel. “And so those guys played. It’s a good defense. ‘Spence’ and Darnell did a great job.

“It didn’t affect who was back there running how we were trying to attack them in that phase.”

A seventh-rounder out of Maryland in 2023, Anderson was by far the lowest-drafted of the five offensive linemen the Steelers selected over the 2023 and 2024 drafts. The other four are starters, but Anderson has appeared in each of the Steelers’ past 29 games (including playoffs), starting five of them — including January’s wild-card game in Baltimore.

Though he’s flexible enough to play all five positions on the line, Anderson has settled into a role as the top backup at guard. He’s a candidate to take over as the starter at left guard next season after the expiration of the contract of veteran Isaac Seumalo.

For now, though, masquerading as a “tight end” is an effective way for Anderson to get game reps. Judging by the first foray into that role this season to a significant degree, the results were effective enough that it could be here to stay the rest of the season.

Smith said he also intended to use Anderson as the “jumbo” more in the Week 3 win at the New England Patriots.

“It’s week-to-week when you look at our game plan,” Smith said. “The way we were ahead a lot (in Dublin), and so Spencer played a lot more, that’s just the way the game flowed.”

According to data from Pro Football Focus, the most recent time the Steelers used a sixth offensive lineman for a game more often was Week 14 of the 2019 season when Banner — a 360-pound tackle — played 24 snaps at tight end during a win at the Arizona Cardinals.

“It got to a point (against the Vikings) where (coaches would say), ‘Report,’ ” Anderson said of last week against the Vikings. “I’m like, ‘all right, cool.’ And (after that play), I look over to the sideline, they’re like, ‘Report again.’ And I’m like, ‘All right.’

“I thought it was good. It felt good out there.”

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