The Pittsburgh Steelers have put a lot of resources into their secondary, and for most of the spring and summer, that secondary has looked superb, but reports claim that was not the case against the very formidable Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver corps at joint practice on August 14.
The Bucs WR trio of Mike Evans, Jalen McMillan and Emeka Egbuka looked dominant through much of today’s practice, and Evans remains one of the NFL’s most unstoppable weapons around the goal line,” Buccaneers team reporter Scott Smith relayed after joint practice with the Steelers.
Similarly, Tampa Bay Times beat reporter Rick Stroud said: “Bucs WR Mike Evans couldn’t be covered during practice Thursday and won most of his battles with Steelers CB Jalen Ramsey. Todd Bowles has seen enough and won’t play him [Saturday].”
Stroud also added later that “after reviewing the tape of today’s practice, Todd Bowles just told me he believes [quarterback] Baker Mayfield played so well today in the joint workout with the Steelers he will NOT play in Saturday night’s game.
Now, to be fair, these are all reports coming from Buccaneers media. So, you can take it with a grain of salt if you’d like, but Steelers reporters were not quite as confident following the joint practice session.
Steelers Struggle to Contain & Move the Ball vs. Buccaneers at Joint Practice
The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo provided a full practice report on the Steelers side of things, but he made sure to note that he was not allowed to divulge specifics based on team policies for closed practices. Still, he did give a sense of how things went using quotes from players to tell the story.
Overall, the Steelers defense has often been dominant against the first-team offense in camp,” he wrote, on the secondary battle versus the Buccaneers WRs. “Based on [cornerback] Brandin Echols’ assessment, the Buccaneers were more successful, especially early. Egbuka said the Bucs offense won Seven Shots 4-3.”
He also quoted Echols, who admitted: “We just didn’t come out with the energy. We came out a little flatter than usual. We’ve just got to fix that.”
On the other side of the football, it doesn’t seem like Aaron Rodgers and the offense had much more luck, aside from a near-clean sweep in an early “Seven Shots” red zone drill.
Steelers and Bucs joint practice finished off with a two-minute drill where the Steelers offense didn’t pick up a first down, [tight end] Pat Freiermuth confirmed,” ESPN Pittsburgh reporter Brooke Pryor reported. “[Wide receiver] DK Metcalf dropped a pass on second down, but the overall sentiment was they needed to clean a bunch of stuff up.”
DeFabo also relayed a quote from center Zach Frazier, who called the run game and general offensive line play “a little sloppy.”
In other words, in one of the Steelers‘ first true tests against another 2024 playoff team, Pittsburgh struggled. It’s not the end of the world, but it is a bit of a rude awakening for head coach Mike Tomlin and his win-now roster.
Steelers Not Playing Starters vs. Buccaneers in Second Preseason Outing
The reason these joint practices are so important is that most NFL teams have gotten away from playing their starters during the preseason. And if starters do take the field, they’re only usually out there for a possession or two.
The Steelers won’t even do that against the Buccaneers during preseason Week 2 on Saturday.
Tomlin said that the Steelers plan to approach Saturday’s preseason game ‘very much like the last one,’ when about 20 players rested,” DeFabo noted at the bottom of his practice report.
“[Tomlin has] already ruled out the following players: QB Rodgers, WR Metcalf, RB Jaylen Warren, TE Freiermuth, TE Jonnu Smith, LG Isaac Seumalo, OLB T.J. Watt, OLB Alex Highsmith, DT Cam Heyward, ILB Patrick Queen, [Darius] Slay, Ramsey and [Joey] Porter,” he continued. Adding: “Calvin Austin III is still recovering from an abdominal injury, and rookie Yahya Black was spotted with a large wrap on his right elbow during the final training camp practice.”
As you can see, the real preseason game was played on the practice field on Thursday, and by the sound of it, the Steelers did not win.
Steelers Faced Rude Awakening in ‘Dominant’ Joint Practice: Report