Hey Steelers fans. Welcome to Tuesday.
Let’s start with the injuries. Alex Highsmith has had an MRI on his groin. While the official results haven’t been released yet, it sounds like he’s headed to several weeks of inactivity. I’ll have more on what that means for the defense below. Troy Fautanu will have surgery to repair his displaced knee cap. Not sure if this is good news or not, but this is the knee opposite the one he’s had problems with in the past. Najee Harris had his arm in a sling yesterday but I suspect we won’t know anything more until Mike Tomlin speaks today.
Replacing Highsmith
Nick Herbig had a big day with two sacks after Alex Highsmith left the game but some perspective is needed. First, the Chargers were in pass first mode once they got behind and that’s where Herbig excels. Secondly, I believe going forward, we will see far more of DeMarvin Leal at OLB in run situations and early downs. Herbig just doesn’t have the stoutness needed to set the edge on a regular basis.
Depth Help
The Steelers signed Calvin Anderson yesterday. He was most recently in New England. He started 50 games in college at Rice and Texas. John Leglue is already on the Practice Squad so I’m a little surprised by this.
Tomlin Tuesday
Steelers’ Head Coach Mike Tomlin will address the media today as he always does. The players are enjoying their day off. I do not expect him to “name” Justin Fields the starting quarterback but I have a hard time seeing him move away from him. Even if Russell Wilson is healthy, I just can’t see it. The team seems to be rallying around Fields more every week.
In Quarters
We used to say here at SCB that every NFL season is divided into quarters. In other words, there are four, four-game chunks in every season. Since the edition of the 17th game, that hasn’t been quite as easy for our math department. The same thing still applies however. The NFL changes rapidly. Some say every week while others believe it’s every four. With three games behind us now, the injuries are starting to mount. Regardless of what happens in Indy on Sunday, the Steelers will have finished their “first quarter” 4-0 or 3-1 and most of us would have taken that start all day long.
Around the North
The Bengals are 0-3 and they’ve lost 2 of 3 at home. You can argue they were ‘screwed’ out of beating the Chiefs by the officials but that doesn’t change things. Their defense is not very good and now their offensive line is banged up too. In Cleveland, Myles Garrett isn’t 100% and Deshaun Watson isn’t playing anywhere near the value of his contract. Then there’s the Ravens. They could easily be 3-0 and were darn near 0-3 after surrendering a ton of points to Dallas before finally closing them out on Sunday. Things will change throughout the rest of the season, but for now, things look good for the Black and Gold.
Random Reads
Through three games, the Washington Commanders haven’t punted. They haven’t turned the ball over on downs yet either… It’s totally fair to say the Chiefs are the new Patriots. They’ve now benefited from two really bad calls in close games. Patrick Mahomes is the NFL’s Michael Jordan. He’s just going to get some of those calls…
