I got my first kinda sort of dud here for a preseason game watch. I had been on a bit of a roll with some fun games to watch and a lot of rookies to observe and usually one or two major surprise things to report out on and look forward to following up on in their next preseason game. This one...not so much.
This was the Steelers’ first-team “kinda-sorta” offense but led by non-Aaron Rodgers QBs versus some of the first team of the Jets. No general rookie breakout performances for a variety of reasons, one of them being the QB play was so bad (on both sides) after Geno Smith (7-7 for 65 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 0-0-0) left the game that the rookie offensive weapons really were hard-pressed to shine.
The score says it all. Two things that I walk away with from the team side of things…
1: I don’t know that the Jets are gonna be flirting with the playoffs or anything, but I do know this is a ‘bad’ team that I don’t wanna face. I don’t think they’re gonna be that bad of a team. What they lack in talent in coaching they make up for in Aaron Glenn trying to be a junior Dan Campbell motivator and it’s starting to work, especially on the defense.
2: I don’t want to give the Jets too much credit because they had the luxury of facing the Steelers’ young, supposedly future great QBs, and the Jets easily harassed and embarrassed them all game. Whoever keeps saying the Steelers are loaded with great young quarterback talent needs to be brought up on libel charges or something.
A dull game unless you are a Jets fan or are “Jets curious” as to how good or bad they might be. The Jets once again played with a lot of passion and fire in a preseason game…and now they’ve actually got some talent to back it up.
Let’s go through my notes that I took from the game scouting/watch and I’ll share those notes in the order of the thing that impressed me, good or bad, the most.
Player Notes…
– Both teams had some first-team defensive players starting the game mixed with some second-teamers and guys who are still fighting for starting jobs… And both teams do have good defenses and some depth on the defensive side. When you take into consideration the defenses here are pretty good and were playing aggressively then it was a good game to scout the young QBs on both sides.
After seeing the young backup QBs from both of these teams now a second time this preseason, I will just say--none of these guys is ever going to matter in the NFL.
The latest Steelers Hall of Fame inductee, after Week 1 of the preseason, Drew Allar (11-23 for 110 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 1-4-0) did not look good. It’s been what Ross and I have been saying about him since his final couple years at Penn State… Everything looks great in shorts and T-shirt, but the second defenses start getting real, Drew Allar folds, and he did here. Less than 50% completion percentage and got sacked 3 times going into the game as the second QB in the game for the Steelers, so he was facing the worst defense the Jets were going to put on the field and still that defense was pretty decent and aggressive and harassed Allar the whole time and Allar didn’t have an answer. Drew Allar made one nice throw scrambling in a panic and lofting one up and putting it on the money deep down field to a receiver, but after watching it a couple times I think it was just a nice lucky moment. The other 22 pass attempts in the game were pretty much garbage for Drew Allar.
Will Howard (10-15 for 74 yards, 0 TD/2 INT, 0-0-0) actually started for the Steelers, and he had the misfortune of playing the Jets’ better defense, so Will Howard was harassed and easily coughed up two picks to the defense. Will Howard is the better processor of the Steelers’ #3 QB candidates but doesn’t have any of the tools that Drew Allar does. And please give me a break with Cade Klubnik (10-14 for 75 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 6-20-0) as a thing. He is going to be a perpetual backup QB in this league. If he ever gets a chance to start in the NFL it’s going to be because of weird, emergency circumstances.
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– Jaylen Warren (5-17-0, 3-26-0/4) started at running back for the Steelers in this game. They played the whole first series. Then Rico Dowdle (5-18-0, 2-12-0/2) came in on second series and played the entire series. Then it was Jaylen Warren back in for the entire third series followed by Rico Dowdle having the fourth series to himself. I do think this is probably going to be the pattern given these guys’ talents and standing with the coaches. It’s what I would like to do if I were an NFL head coach and had to run my backfield… I’d get a bunch of cheap veteran RB talent and if I had a couple of three-down RBs at my disposal, I would just let them alternate series. This really does look like a true 50-50 split.
– After Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle left the game, Lew Nichols (3-11-0, 1-2-0/1) came in who definitely looks like he’s the #3 RB. After Lew Nichols left the game, Kaleb Johnson (10-39-0, 2-15-0/2) came in and got a big run of touches… And I gotta say, for the second game in a row, Johnson didn’t look that bad. He’s starting to look like that guy who caught my eye at Iowa…as far as running the ball on the interior. He’s starting to run with a little confidence and starting to show a little bit of that subtle shiftiness. He’s got a lot of holes in his game otherwise but that interior running of the ball ability is starting to try to peek through a little bit.
Kaleb Johnson is likely done in Pittsburgh, he really needs a fresh start. He would be a perfect acquisition for the Dallas Cowboys to try to become the #2 RB there since all their other efforts aren’t going as well as they had hoped.
– Ross Jacobs is gonna hate to hear this, but Adonai Mitchell (0-0-0, 2-25-0/3) caught a couple passes from Geno Smith, and on the surface that’s not a big deal…but I noticed the way he was catching the ball was different than he has in the past. His hand placement has gotten way better. He looked like he knew what he was doing in this game. He may have really grinded in the offseason and has made himself a more competent WR. I gotta see it consistently in real games against real defenses, but I did notice something has changed, improved with Adonai Mitchell as a catcher of the ball.
– There was a ton of defensive players who cycled in and out of this game on both sides, and many of them known talents but I want to point out two defensive players that stood out to me here.
1: The rookie David Bailey (1 tackle, 0.0 sacks, 0 TFLs, 0 PDs, 0 INTs) really is going to be a problem for offensive tackles to try to contain from getting to the backfield in a one-on-one situation. Bailey is definitely a help to the Jets defense day one.
2: The most impressive player that caught my eye, seventh-round pick last season by the Steelers linebacker Carson Bruener (2 tackles, 1.0 sacks, 1 TFLs, 0 PDs, 0 INTs) out of Washington. He had a sack in this game blitzing from an interior linebacker position where he kind of came in untouched but had to deal with an offensive lineman that had way backpedaled back into protection and Bruener just did an Adam Sandler in The Waterboy move and ran full speed into the offensive lineman blowing the offensive lineman backwards and they all crashed into the QB for an excellent sack. What caught my attention was not the play so much, even though it was a cool-looking play, it was the speed at which Bruener was moving.
I liked him as a potential starting linebacker in the NFL coming out of the University of Washington in 2025, but then he kinda got lost to be a special teamer his rookie season, but I just saw a little ‘it’ again from him. Not sure if his full game is ready or if he’s just gonna always be a special teamer but I saw some things in this game.
– The two higher profile rookie-like receivers on both sides did play some in this game but I couldn’t get a great feel for having some mind-bending commentary on them because they only got 1 catch on one target. I can only note that… Omar Cooper (1-9-0/1) ran with the starters for the Jets. Those reports that he wasn’t going to start seemed to be ridiculous. Germie Bernard (0-0-0/1) just got lost in the bad Steelers QB play.
– Roman Wilson (2-16-0/2) played a few series in this game and he made a mistake or two potentially on how he interpreted a route and the quarterback interpreted it a different way, there might be an argument that it was Wilson’s fault...but it also might be the QB’s mistake, but whatever that was, outside of that I thought Wilson was running really nice routes and he just looks like he’s floating on the air when he’s running his route or with the ball. That’s gonna matter in the real NFL. Roman Wilson has a gift. I don’t know if it can be anything more than a WR4 this season, but he kinda has a little Randall Cobb appeal for a QB such as Aaron Rodgers.
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