The Pittsburgh Steelers fell to the New York Jets, 17-0, on Friday night at Acrisure Stadium. Strangely enough, it was the first time the Steelers were shut out in a preseason game since 2016, when they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles by an identical score. Although Pittsburgh didn’t put up a single point, there is still plenty to talk about.
Let’s have a look at who helped their stock and who hurt themselves in the Steelers embarrassing preseason shutout loss.
Stock up:
LB Elandon Roberts
The Steelers could shut Elandon Roberts
down for the rest of the preseason, and it would be justified. The linebacker seemed to be on a different level than anyone else in this game. Roberts made his presence known from the moment he stepped on the field, stopping a run at the line of scrimmage. His most impressive play came on a fourth-and-two where he made a phenomenal open-field tackle to prevent a New York first down. Roberts played with his hair on fire, and is going to bring that same energy and production into the regular season.
S Rayshawn Jenkins
Safety is one of the Steelers’ thinnest positions on the roster, and Jenkins’ performance in this game gave his chances of making the roster a serious bump. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham made it a point to blitz Jenkins early and often, and it worked like a charm as Jenkins recorded a TFL early in the contest. Jenkins has proven that he is a solid veteran presence that can change the game in the blink of an eye while chasing the quarterback. He has a real shot to make the 53-man roster.
P Cameron Johnston
If the punter is one of your biggest winners, your team likely didn’t have a great week. All jokes aside, Johnston averaged 50.5 yards on his 6 punts in the contest. The Steelers defense will be thanking Johnston for giving them more room to work with if he keeps this going into the regular season.
Stock down:
QB Will Howard
There really isn’t a nice way to talk about Will Howard’s performance in his first career start. The young quarterback finished 10/15 for 74 yards and two interceptions. Both of the turnovers were pretty easy snags for the defense, in which Howard simply didn’t recognize that a defender was waiting to jump the route — though Roman Wilson failing to flatten his routes and drifting downfield didn’t do the young passer any favors. For someone who is competing for a backup quarterback job, a performance like tonight’s will make it hard for the Steelers to trust Howard in that role. Mason Rudolph may be one of the biggest winners from tonight, and he didn’t take a single snap.
The offensive line
I hate to have negative takeaways on the offensive line for a second straight week, but this game was arguably worse than their effort in Week 1 of the preseason. One of the lone bright spots on the line last week was Broderick Jones, but he was unable to replicate his performance. However, my main concerns come from starting right tackle Dylan Cook. Cook gave up a sack early in the game, one of the four that the line gave up overall on the night. Rookie Max Iheanachor remains sidelined with a neck/shoulder injury, which is unfortunate because he could have had a serious shot to earn the starting right tackle job as early as Week 1 based on his performances in training camp. There are a lot of moving pieces and new starters on this offensive line. Hopefully it all sorts itself out for the better, but there are plenty of reasons to be concerned after this week.
Let us know what you think in the comments. Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!
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