SCB Steelers Quick Hitters: The ‘Safety Corner’ Edition

Good Tuesday to you Steelers fans.

Every single year the Pittsburgh Steelers run into the same problem. So do the other 31 teams in the National Football League but that doesn’t mean a damn thing to Mike Tomlin. The problem I speak of is that every year there’s always one position that suddenly has injuries and this year’s winner is defensive backs. We can probably isolate this to cornerbacks but even the safety spot has had its share of knocks. If you watched the entirety of the preseason opener then you saw Duke Dawson go down in the back of the end zone. It looked bad and it is. He’s done for the season. Therefore, the Steelers placed him on the waived/injured list and signed CB Lavert Hill. They also waived CB Isaiah Dunn. Besides Dawson, they also lost seventh round draft pick Cory Trice, Jr to a season ending injury and second rounder Joey Porter, Jr has battled injuries as well. The safety spot has seen Keanu Neal and Damontae Kazee both battle nagging injuries as well so to say the secondary is hurting is a bit of an understatement. The ray of sunshine here is that this allows some younger guys to get more reps both in practice and in the preseason games. The downside – besides the injuries – is that this takes away time to gel as a unit for guys Teryl Austin will need to depend on in the regular season. There is still some time to get healthy so let’s hope that’s exactly what happens here at a very key position.

This Week

I’ll officially be an “empty nester” by the end of this week. My wife and I will be taking our son to college in Ohio later today and will be back Thursday. Never fear my friends! The podcast will go on as scheduled!! And by the way, this is a weird feeling.

Tweet of the Day… It was truly an incredible scene. A preseason game for crying out loud… But this was different. While Tommy Maddox was expected to do most of the quarterbacking in 2004, the fan base was over the moon at the thought of Ben Roethlisberger finally being the “guy.” Not since Terry Bradshaw retired in 1983 had the Steelers had a true, franchise QB. I was sitting in the end zone at Ford Field. My wife had surprised me with tickets so my step-dad and I went down to the game in Detroit. It was a bit “full-circle” for me and Roethlisberger. I had seen him play at Michigan Stadium when he was there with his Miami, OH team. While his numbers that day weren’t spectacular, you could see this young man had ability and potential. What an evening it was.

I was there. Not surprisingly there were A LOT of Terrible Towels as well. https://t.co/sNCbKtEvt0

— Steel Dad (@SteelDad) August 14, 2023

Heavy, man.

I think I learned that phrase from Shaggy while watching Scooby-Doo… In football parlance, it refers to subbing out a speedy guy or two and replacing them with bigger, stronger guys. Typically this indicates a run is coming or play-action but either way, Matt Canada seems destined to use it. We saw a few plays Friday night where both Zach Gentry and Darnell Washington were in the game together. That’s some serious “heavy” if you will. ‘12’ personnel (two TEs, one RB) looks to be a very routine combination for this season for Canada. Whether it’s Gentry and Washington or one of them and Pat Freiermuth I expect this to be a popular thing in 2023.

Coming Up

The Steelers will host their only preseason game of 2023 on Saturday night when the Buffalo Bills drive down from Western New York. There’s no question that we’ll see Kenny Pickett again but for how long we don’t know. If he has another solid opening drive that results in points then maybe he steps aside again. That said, with just three exhibition games, this would be largely considered the “dress rehearsal” game. If Tomlin treats it as such then I’d expect close to a full half for Pickett and much of the offense. The week three preseason game would then feature Mason Rudolph and Tanner Morgan. We shall see however as there’s so much time between Saturday’s game and the actual season opener on September 10th.