Pittsburg, PA
Steelers Undecided on Next Starting QB
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers are gearing up for their next preseason game, as they welcome the Buffalo Bills to Acrisure Stadium. When the team takes the field, most of the starters and roster regulars are expected to play.
That includes the quarterback position, which should give the Steelers their first look at Russell Wilson in a game situation. He’s been cautiously worked back into practice as he recovers from a calf injury, and he should play at least a series or two in the next preseason game.
But the question is whether Wilson will be the starter or not when he takes the field. According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the QB competition is still alive in Pittsburgh.
“It’s a lot more open than I probably thought,” he said. “And probably a lot more open than it would’ve been had Russell Wilson not get injured. But this is all going to play out over the next couple weeks and I for sure look forward to this one.”
From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: The #Steelers are undecided about which QB starts preseason game 2. pic.twitter.com/1j2sPVv4uI
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 13, 2024
With Russ out of action, Justin Fields has started in his place and he’s played well. He’s impressed at training camp and went 5/6 in the team’s first preseason game against the Houston Texans. At this point, he’s done enough to ask the question of who the Steelers’ starting QB is. Rapoport said so himself when discussing why the Steelers are still in the deliberating phase.
“Part of the issue is Justin Fields has played really well,” he said. “You know he reminds Arthur Smith of (Ryan) Tannehill a little bit. You kind of wonder, can Justin Fields do something similar and does that edge out Russell Wilson?”
As Rapoport stated, the Steelers have a few weeks to figure out their starting QB before opening their season against the Atlanta Falcons. It should be a tight battle between Wilson and Fields and while Wilson is still the favorite, this competition is far from over.
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Pittsburg, PA
Wetherholt’s full-circle moment in Pittsburgh, now in Cardinals red
Growing up in the northern Pittsburgh suburb of Mars, Pa., Wetherholt was a big Pirates fan and idolized outfielder Andrew McCutchen. There was also a time, as a child, when Wetherholt was late to his own party at
Pittsburg, PA
NFL Draft in Pittsburgh sets onsite attendance record, third-best viewership mark
A historic number of people flooded into Pittsburgh for the NFL Draft on Thursday.
Around 320,000 fans attended the opening round of the draft on Thursday night just outside of Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, which marked an attendance record for round one of the draft, ESPN announced on Monday afternoon. In total, about 805,000 people attended the three-day event.
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ESPN also said that about 13,2 million people tuned in to watch the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night, which made it the third-most watched opening round under the current format, which started back in 2010. Only the 2025 and 2020 editions of the draft drew a bigger audience on the first night.
The league said that a record amount of merchandise was sold throughout the NFL Draft weekend, too, though it did not provide a figure or metric there. The previous record on that front was set last season in Green Bay.
The Las Vegas Raiders used the No. 1 overall pick on Indiana quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza on Thursday night. Mendoza, who led the Hoosiers to the national championship earlier this year, was not in attendance in Pittsburgh. Instead, he celebrated with his family from home in Miami.
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The NFL Draft will be held next spring in Washington D.C. for the first time in modern history. It’s expected to be held on the National Mall. Washington D.C. held the draft one other time back in December 1940.
Pittsburg, PA
Overreactions to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2026 NFL Draft Class: Will Howard’s future, Omar Khan without Mike Tomlin, and more
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a 2026 NFL Draft that was, well, perplexing to put it nicely. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat when it comes to the draft process, and in three to four years, there’s a chance we look back on the class and the prevailing notion was dead wrong.
So today, we are going to name the three biggest overreactions to what the Steelers just did over the course of the weekend. Let’s jump in.
Overreaction No. 1: Max Iheanachor is another Broderick Jones
Look, if we want to reprimand what happened in the first round and the phone-gate debacle, that’s fine. But as Omar Khan said after the draft, the Steelers stuck true to their board and went with their highest rated player once Makai Lemon was poached by the Eagles.
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And yes, Iheanachor is raw. Yes, he didn’t start playing football until very recently and was mostly a soccer player. But the truth is, there might not be a tackle with higher potential and a greater ceiling than Iheanachor.
The feet, the length, the traits, it’s all there. Sure, the Steelers will need to be patient, but this isn’t a player who is fundamentally flawed the way that Jones was. This is a player who you don’t have to fix; you have to build up. So it’s far too soon to write off Iheanachor.
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Overreaction No.2: Mike McCarthy doesn’t like Will Howard
When the rhetoric coming out of Pittsburgh is always about how much the Steelers love Will Howard, and on day two, with their third pick in the draft, the Steelers take another quarterback that many view as a reach, it’s easy to see why some may believe that McCarthy doesn’t like Howard.
The truth is, McCarthy doesn’t know what he likes. He needs to see both Allar and Howard competing in a live environment before making any rash decisions. And when you don’t have an obvious quarterback of the future, taking as many shots as possible makes a lot of sense.
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Overreaction No.3: Omar Khan was carried by Mike Tomlin
If you look at Omar Khan’s draft history since he took over for Kevin Colbert in 2023, you see draft classes littered with talent and starters. And honestly, just about every time it reached Sunday of draft weekend, the consensus view was that Khan and the Steelers nailed the draft.
Well, the only obvious difference in the decision-making process this year was no Mike Tomlin. And under Mike Tomlin, the Steelers were at every big-time Pro Day, the Senior Bowl, and well represented at the NFL Combine. A lot of that changed this year, but it doesn’t mean that Omar Khan wasn’t heavily involved, if not making picks, before.
We’ll see if the media and fans, or Khan and co., are right in 3-4 years.
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