The Steelers have opened the Mike McCarthy era 1-0 following a one-score win over the Atlanta Falcons to start the season.
As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had:
1. T.J. Watt looks back
T.J. Watt’s performance on Sunday, with two sacks, an additional tackle for loss, four total tackles and a pick six had me checking the clock to see if it was 2021.
After an offseason full of worries about the veteran edge defender’s age and expensive contract (which was justified given his output in 2025), Watt seemed to turn
back into his old self in Week 1.
It was needed, too. The Steelers won by just a touchdown as a rusty Pittsburgh offense struggled to outscore the Cooper Rush-led Falcons. The defensive score proved to be key in the win.
One key stat to note is that Pittsburgh’s top three edge rushers — Watt, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig — all played right around 40 defensive snaps each on Sunday per PFF’s charting, with Jack Sawyer recorded another 23. Keeping Watt fresh has been just as important an aspect of keeping his game impactful through his 30s as the more-talked about points such as moving him around the formation or changing up his pass-rushing arsenal.
The Steelers made sure to spell Watt more on Sunday with the team’s other three competent edge rushers, and sure enough, the production followed. In a way we didn’t really see in 2025, Watt returned to game-wrecker form.
Watt wasn’t the only aging defender on the Steelers to dominate against Atlanta. The 37-year-old Cam Heyward recorded two total tackles, some key pressures and a whopping three — yes, three — passes batted at the line of scrimmage. Heyward was also given more time to rest on Sunday, playing just 33 of the team’s 61 total defensive snaps Sunday after being the most played defensive lineman in the NFL last year.
The 31-year-old Jalen Ramsey recorded a pass defensed himself, adding four more tackles as he rotated between slot corner in nickel and safety in base defense. For a team often criticized for being overreliant on a veteran defense — again, not saying it’s never justified — those aging stars sure delivered to open the season.
2. Offense is sloppy, but has pieces
The Pittsburgh defense largely held up its end of the bargain against the banged-up Falcons, with Atlanta’s lone touchdown drive coming after a Jaylen Warren fumble on Pittsburgh’s own 27-yard-line.
The Steelers offense, however, was the reason why this game was so close.
The offensive line gave up just two sacks, with quarterback Aaron Rodgers looking more comfortable extending plays than usual against an Atlanta front down its top two edge rushers. Still, efficiency was an issue, with Rodgers completing just 24 of his 40 attempts.
Plenty of the blame for the incompletions can fall on Rodgers’ receiving corps, especially wide receiver DK Metcalf, who recorded at least one clean drop and couldn’t hang onto a few other passes you’d expect a $33 million wide receiver to catch.
The good news, at least, is that Metcalf was clearly getting the best of a talented Falcons secondary, but just couldn’t always complete the catch. He’s always been an inconsistent receiver, but Sunday marked an especially low point. He should bounce back.
The new big-name addition to the Steelers’ wide receiver room, Michael Pittman Jr., was targeted less but made the largest impact with a team-best 58 receiving yards on three grabs. Of a group of pass catchers that often seemed discombobulated or on a different page from Rodgers, Pittman’s savvy was immediately noticeable. Despite being known as a possession receiver primarily at this point in his career, his chemistry with Rodgers led to some of the team’s biggest gains through the air against the Falcons.
Roman Wilson and Pat Freiermuth also had days worth noting. The former seems to have a firm hold on the WR3 role at the moment, and probably could’ve done more to solidify his status by holding onto a catchable contested pass right before halftime. Still, he was more involved in the offense than usual in his Steelers career thus far, and had some flashes Sunday. There’s definitely a good wide receiver to be found in Roman Wilson, but it remains to be seen if the Steelers will be able to unlock that this year.
As for Freiermuth, he led the team with five catches and recorded the offense’s lone score. Freiemuth is due for a return to form of sorts as his production has plateaued in recent seasons, and Sunday was a good start.
Fellow tight end Darnell Washington only logged two grabs but did manage to record a highlight-worthy stiff arm on one of them.
It’ll be interesting to see how the team involves Washington — who was recently signed to an extension — more in the offense in 2026. His impact wasn’t always felt in a run game that took until the end of the game to get going, with Warren making up for his earlier fumble by finishing the day with a solid 4.6 yards per carry (Dowdle finished with just 1.9).
As the offensive line continues to improve — and if Aaron Rodgers can continue to look like he did on Sunday — there is still plenty to be excited about regarding this Steelers offense despite a disappointing opener.
3. Steelers survive Joey Porter Jr.’s absence
The caveat here, of course, is that the Steelers’ passing defense looked good against a banged-up Cooper Rush as the opposing quarterback. Still, the Pittsburgh secondary looked solid despite being down its top corner in Joey Porter Jr., and a starting safety in DeShon Elliott.
Free agent addition Jamel Dean looked good and even forced a fumble when playing near the line of scrimmage. And starting in lieu of Porter, Asante Samuel Jr. was strong in coverage and had few mistakes outside of an unnecessary roughness penalty for a body slam out of bounds.
Honestly, it was good to see the Steelers’ secondary playing so physically even if open-field tackling was sketchy overall (and it’s worth noting most of those misses came against all-world running back Bijan Robinson in space).
This is a defensive backfield willing to lay down a big hit. And it held up well in coverage, limiting Drake London to two catches for 29 yards and shutting Kyle Pitts out of the box score altogether. If and when Porter and Elliott return, the group could look even better.
When Pittsburgh faces more threatening quarterbacks down the road — starting next week with Drake Maye — maybe this narrative will change. The Steelers defense had plenty of hype last year but disappointed early in the season, and there was some worry the same could happen this year with how many questions there were at safety and cornerback. So far, at least, the defense looks just fine.
4. Some new ideas — but the Steelers haven’t transformed yet
The point of this column is not an in-depth all-22 review, but rather a collection of snap reactions written the day of the game. Still, even from the TV broadcast, it was easy to see some changes in how Pittsburgh is operating under its new coaching staff.
For one, there was a greater emphasis on the aforementioned breathers for veteran defenders such as Watt and Heyward, that seemed to work as intended given the great performances by both.
New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham also leaned far more into Nick Herbig’s inside linebacker versatility than Teryl Austin ever did, moving the recently-extended defender all over the front seven against Atlanta. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about paying Herbig pass rusher money just to make him play a good number of snaps at a much cheaper position, but overall, it appears to be a smart way to get the most out of the team’s three highly-paid rushers in Watt, Herbig and Highsmith.
And according to Next Gen Stats, the Steelers played only zone coverage on Atlanta’s passing drop backs on Sunday after being a fairly man-heavy coverage team last season. The plan worked, but it will be interesting to see how that tendency pairs with the possible return of Porter, one of the league’s premier press-man specialists. Of course, Graham has made a career out of being a highly-adaptable coordinator.
On offense, the Steelers did take some steps forward from the worst of the Arthur Smith scheme in 2025, passing the ball all over the field including the middle, taking time to extend plays and consistently pushing the ball into deep or intermediate territory.
Also according to Next Gen Stats, Rodgers’ 9.2 air yards per target against the Falcons were the most he has recorded during his time in Pittsburgh, with his 2.95-second time to throw being his third-highest average as a Steeler.
You can point to his diminished efficiency as why that might be a bad thing, but I’d argue a more competent game from Metcalf could’ve led to much better results. That’s why I’m still somewhat optimistic in this offense despite the slow start.
Still, one of the most common complaints of past Steelers teams were slow starts, playing games too close against inferior teams, and needing superhuman performances on defense or special teams to mask a lack of needed scoring from the offense. That didn’t change at all on Sunday.
Despite the win, there’s still a long way to go.
5. Odds and ends
- Don’t let the Falcons’ horrible nine penalties for 96 yards distract you from a sloppy seven penalties for 52 yards from the Steelers, not counting a completely botched field goal operation. This was not a clean performance to open the season with.
- The inside linebacker room seemed to take a massive step forward under Graham, flying around the field all game. Payton Wilson recorded a team-best 13 total tackles (including two for loss), with Patrick Queen coming in second with seven. The team’s two defensive holding penalties seemed to highlight an emphasis on the defensive front keeping its athletic backers clean to make plays. Keep the flags down next game, and that philosophy seems to be working.
- I wasn’t too impressed or disappointed with the offensive line overall in this game, but Dylan Cook continues to play like someone who will be replaced by Max Iheanachor early this season.
- The Steelers’ defensive front really dominated the Falcons at times on Sunday. It’s easy to be bullish about this group heading into the rest of the season.
- It was sort of hilarious to be stuck watching a slow-moving Steelers-Falcons game while the rest of the NFL was enjoying fireworks on offense — Bears-Panthers finished 59-37!
- A friendly reminder that while Week 1 counts, it’s rarely indicative of the rest of the season. Teams are rusty at this part of the schedule, and more importantly, there’s no current film out yet for a preparation-obsessed league. It could be for the better or worse, but plenty is still set to change for the Steelers this year.
Next week, the Steelers will face the New England Patriots at 1 p.m. EST in Foxborough.
What are your takeaways from Steelers vs. Falcons? Agree/disagree with the ones above? Join the Behind the Steel Curtain community and let us know in the comments!
