PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers dropped a 17-0 decision to the New York Jets in their second NFL preseason game on Friday, Aug. 21 at Acrisure Stadium.
It was a bad night for starting quarterback Will Howard, who threw a pair of interceptions in Jets territory to end promising drives.
The offense as a whole wasn’t much better. The running game averaged just 3.8 yards per carry and no wide receiver totaled more than 32 yards. The defense had its moments, but gave up an opening-drive touchdown to Jets starter Geno Smith.
Here’s a look at individual winners and losers from the evening.
Winners
QB Mason Rudolph
He didn’t play Friday night after head coach Mike McCarthy said earlier
in the week that he’d seen enough from Aaron Rodgers’ primary backup against the Packers. Rudolph completed 10 of 11 passes for 93 yards in that game. McCarthy looks pretty smart after Howard’s struggles in this one. Any questions that Rudolph is the reliable backup this team needs behind Rodgers have likely been put to rest. The only question is whether McCarthy and GM Omar Khan will try to keep both Howard and rookie Drew Allar around in hopes of letting them compete to replace Rodgers in 2027. Rodgers has signaled his intent to retire after 2026.
RB Kaleb Johnson
The team’s 2025 third-round pick appeared to be a prime roster cut candidate after the preseason opener against the Packers in which he played just five snaps and gained 3 yards on two carries. McCarthy deployed him more freely against the Jets. He led the team in both carries with 10 and yards with 39. Those numbers probably won’t get anyone too excited but seem to signal that he has a fighting chance to beat out Travis Homer, last week’s starter, and Lew Nichols to back up Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle. Johnson had 28 carries for 69 yards as a rookie but was mostly a non-factor after an early-season special teams gaffe against the Seattle Seahawks.
LB Elandon Roberts
The veteran spent most of the offseason as a free agent before finally signing with the Steelers last week. He had five tackles in his return to the defense that he served as a reliable run stuffer for from 2023-24. One was a nice play in space on a pass play to force a Jets punt in the second half. His teammates did a good job against the run as a whole, too. The Jets averaged just 2.6 yards on their 24 carries. It was a big reason the game remained close despite the offensive ineptitude from the Steelers. Roberts is a big winner because his roster spot is not assured. The Steelers have multiple candidates for depth roles behind starters Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson, so it’s important that Roberts may have given himself a leg up.
Losers
QB Will Howard
The reality is that Allar likely is not going anywhere as a rookie drafted under McCarthy’s tenure in the third round. Howard is a holdover from former coach Mike Tomlin’s regime and needed to make a stronger case with Rudolph out of the picture for the evening. He didn’t. His first pick was a clearly forced throw to Roman Wilson that Jets safety Andre Cisco read cleanly. The second was a missed attempt to lead Wilson. The throw was too flat and allowed Samuel Womack III to easily cut in front of it. Howard needs to look better in the finale against Buffalo to stay in the conversation to be kept as a fourth QB on the 53-man roster. NFL teams rarely make that move, and so the player needs to be definitionally exceptional to change that math.
WR Roman Wilson
Every spring and summer for three years now, we’ve heard good things about how the former third-round pick is practicing. But when the lights go on in the big stadiums, he just isn’t as noticeable. He totaled two catches for 16 yards in this one after making one catch for 7 yards in the opener against the Packers. He was involved in both Howard turnovers and isn’t inspiring a ton of confidence coming off a 2025 season in which he made 12 catches for 166 yards. We always have to add the disclaimer that Rodgers’ comfort level with him will likely determine how his year goes. And we haven’t seen Rodgers in a game yet after he praised Wilson throughout the preseason. Still, you’d have liked to see more from him through two games than he’s shown as he fights to start in the slot alongside DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. on the outside. If there’s a saving grace for Wilson, it’s that rookie receiver Germie Bernard was even worse Friday night after a solid debut vs. the Packers. He was blanked with zero catches on one target.
WR Kaden Wetjen
The fourth-round pick in April’s draft was brought in primarily for his return skills after averaging nearly 30 yards per punt return during his final season at Iowa. We haven’t seen him be anything close to a special teams dynamo yet. Friday night, he returned four kicks for a total of just 29 yards. And he nearly committed a costly turnover with a fumble on one of them. It was originally ruled a recovery by the Jets before being narrowly overturned by replay assist. His two catches for 79 yards last week in the passing game were an encouraging sign, but he had fewer than 200 receiving yards for the Hawkeyes in his final season with them. He’s probably not a serious threat to crack that rotation consistently. To justify a roster spot longer term, he needs to show some improved level of explosiveness on kicks.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steelers winners and losers: Will Howard's struggles great news for Mason Rudolph
