Tim Benz: A 6-pack of players who need to shine in the Steelers preseason opener
Saturday night marks the preseason opener for the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers. They are visiting the Jacksonville Jaguars. Here’s a six-pack of players to watch.
1 & 2. The two tackles: I’m not pretending to break new ground for myself or anyone else in the media or in the fanbase. Troy Fautanu relaunching what amounted to a truncated rookie year, and Broderick Jones hopefully reinventing himself on his alleged “natural” left side, are the two most important areas of growth needed to make this offensive line into what it has to be.
Veteran Isaac Seumalo will be fine at one guard spot. Mason McCormick showed promise at the other guard last year — as did Zach Frazier at center.
On the edges, though, if those two former first-round picks fail, the whole line fails. And if they fail badly Saturday night and Mason Rudolph gets squashed, suddenly the Steelers are down to a 41-year-old starter and a Skylar-Thompson-in-a-pear-tree at quarterback.
Jacksonville pass rushers Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker (a combined 18.5 sacks last year) will provide a good test in limited reps.
3. Kaleb Johnson: He was my favorite player early in training camp. When he sees the hole, he gets to it quickly. When he gets through the hole, he exploits the open space and rewards the blocking that created the opening.
Johnson has a different build than Najee Harris. He doesn’t have the bruising tree trunk legs that Harris did. He runs with higher hips and a longer stride, and looks more suited to pay off runs when he gets to the open field. He’s good at stretching out wide plays if nothing is there initially, but still inching ahead and falling forward to at least gain some positive yards.
But he wasn’t quite as impressive once the pads went on and the hitting was for real.
I am a fan of picking Johnson in the third round. I think he’s going to be good. I hope he gets repeated carries against some of Jacksonville’s first team.
4. Travis Hunter: Normally, I wouldn’t put an opposing player on this list. But, sure, I’m as curious as anyone else to see how this dual WR/CB experiment goes for the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
He pulled it off in college. Let’s see how long he can keep it going in the NFL. Injury risk, mental and physical fatigue, contract consternations, potential coaching changes over the years — stuff like that could eventually derail it. But in the short-term, I think he’s athletic enough to pull it off.
Travis Hunter’s body control is just silly
pic.twitter.com/5SMiGfscs3— John Frascella (Football) (@NFLFrascella) August 6, 2025
Good receivers (unless you are Pittsburgh trying to fill the No. 2 void) are usually easier to find than good corners. Liam Coen has said he looks more polished on the defensive side of the ball right now. Trevor Lawrence wants him as a receiver full-time. His natural talents can probably overcome any lack of nuance he has at the position.
Let’s see who wins that debate if it comes to that. My guess is the QB will. Mike DeCourcy and I debated that topic quite a bit during our inaugural “Friday Football” show.
5. Derrick Harmon: I mean, he’s still the first-round pick, isn’t he? I feel like Yahya Black, the fifth-round pick, is getting more attention because less was expected of him, and they play the same relatively anonymous position.
Anonymous in a training camp setting, anyway.
Of course, Black is going up against third-string offensive linemen a lot in practice. Harmon is facing the starters. Regardless, I’ve never seen a first-rounder get talked about so little throughout an entire training camp — especially one who is a lock to start.
6. Beanie Bishop: A year ago, Bishop was an undrafted rookie who gave the Steelers significant value by playing in all 17 games and intercepting four passes.
Patrick Queen got his hands (and helmet) on the ball first. Then Beanie Bishop Jr. took care of the INT ???? pic.twitter.com/EILkXXxuFk
— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2025
Since then, the franchise signed Darius Slay, Brandin Echols and Daryl Porter Jr. It traded for Jalen Ramsey and drafted Donte Kent.
Not to mention, second-year player D’Shawn Jamison is getting a little buzz after playing 15 games in Carolina last year.
Bishop is often around the ball. He may be on the field opposite Nick Mullens and John Wolford, while covering backup receivers.
I bet Bishop (and maybe Jamison) get a pick Saturday night.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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