The Steelers’ running back has been out since Week 4
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 5-2 after defeating the New York Jets 37-15, keeping hold of a share of first place in the AFC North with the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers have gotten healthier at the skill positions in recent weeks, seeing Jaylen Warren return to form and become a focal point of the offense. Now, they are looking as if they’ll have their full rotation of running backs ready for Week 8 on Monday night when they host the New York Giants.
According to Mike Tomlin, Cordarrelle Patterson is “angling” to return in Week 8, along with linebacker/special teams ace Tyler Matakevich and safety Damontae Kazee.
Mike Tomlin says that Tyler Matakevich, Damontae Kazee, and Cordarrelle Patterson are all angling themselves to return to the Steelers this week.
Tomlin says Donte Jackson’s shoulder injury is ‘minor,’ and he expects him to play.
Patterson was a spark plug for the Steelers in the first month of the season. Averaging over seven yards per carry against the Los Angeles Chargers and Indianapolis Colts, while also catching five passes in those two games. He injured his ankle against the Colts in Week 4 and has been out since. To have him return to the lineup to compliment Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, as well as be the return ace that he is, would be a big boost for Pittsburgh.
Here’s a first look at the odds on the board for the Steelers Week 8 matchup against the Giants.
Fresh off back-to-back 30-plus point games, the Steelers are headed back to primetime for Week 8’s Monday Night Football against another New York team, the Giants, on Oct. 28 (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN).
In Week 7, Pittsburgh dominated the New York Jets in the second half en route to a 37-15 victory, advancing to 5-2. Quarterback Russell Wilson overcame a rough start and caught fire late with 264 passing yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. The running back duo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren looked the best it has all season. The defense had its struggles but held Aaron Rodgers and a talented receiving core to just 15 points.
Injury-wise, Pittsburgh expects to have OLB3 Nick Herbig and star center Zach Frazier out until the bye — the Steelers offensive line had some rough sequences early against the Jets. Starting cornerback Donte Jackson also left the game early with a shoulder injury, as did defensive tackle Montravius Adams with knee. The severity remains unknown.
The New York Giants are in less optimistic territory, dropping to 2-5 following a 28-3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. New York allowed just 114 passing yards, but Eagles running back Saquon Barkley rushed all over his former team for 176 yards and a touchdown, averaging over 10 per carry. On offense, the Giants struggled to get anything going. Quarterback Daniel Jones threw for under 100 yards; no runner broke 25.
On the injury front, the Giants are beat up. Pass-rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux is on injured reserve, while his running mate Brian Burns is trying to play through a groin injury. Offensive tackle Andrew Thomas is also on IR. Cornerback Adoree’ Jackson missed Week 7 with a neck injury, and wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, core special teamer Ty Summers, and cornerback Cor’Dale Flott suffered injuries against the Eagles.
Here’s a full look at the opening odds for Giants vs. Steelers in Week 8.
Mike Tomlin teams perform historically well on Monday nights, and the Steelers are back at home following their best win of the season. 5.5-point favorites might feel optimistic, but it’s very reasonable. What’s a little more surprising is the 37.5-point over/under — the Steelers have been productive offensively of late, even if the Giants are coming off a three-point performance. At first glance, it’s a favorable matchup for the Steelers.
C.J. Henderson has earned a promotion to Pittsburgh’s 53-man roster. Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Steelers have signed the practice-squad cornerback to the active roster.
The former first-round pick joined the Steelers practice squad in late September. While today’s move comes after Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson aggravated his shoulder injury last night, Rapoport notes that Henderson was also drawing interest from other cornerback-needy squads. By adding Henderson to the active roster, the Steelers now control the player’s fate this season.
The ninth-overall pick in the 2020 draft, Henderson showed flashes as a rookie with the Jaguars, hauling in an interception to go along with 36 tackles. He ended his rookie campaign on IR with a shoulder injury, and he only got into two games with Jacksonville in 2021 before getting dealt to Carolina. He ultimately spent two-plus seasons with the Panthers, finding himself in and out of the starting lineup. Pro Football Focus was never especially fond of Henderson’s performance, with the site often giving him one of the worst positional grades in pass coverage.
After hitting free agency this past offseason, Henderson quickly caught on with the Texans. He was among the team’s final cuts, and it took him about a month before he got an offer from the Steelers.
Joey Porter Jr. and Jackson have soaked up the majority of Pittsburgh’s snaps at CB this season, although the latter has been limited in each of the past two weeks while dealing with his shoulder injury. With Beanie Bishop Jr. penciled in as the nickelback, James Pierre has been tasked with filling in during Week 6 and Week 7, with the former UDFA getting into a season-high 35 snaps yesterday. With only those four aforementioned CBs on the active roster, Henderson could be in line for a role if Jackson if forced to miss any time.
The Steelers will be adding another name to their secondary. Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Pittsburgh is signing cornerback C.J. Henderson from the practice squad to the active roster.
The #Steelers are signing CB CJ Henderson from their practice squad to the active roster, source said. A former #Jaguars first-round pick, Henderson was in demand for CB-needy teams. pic.twitter.com/HqcM4SkRlC
The roster move isn’t an ideal sign for the health of Steelers’ CB2 Donte Jackson, who re-aggravated a shoulder injury against the Jets and did not return. However, Rapoport makes it sound like the Steelers signed Henderson to prevent him from getting poached by other teams.
The Jacksonville Jaguars’ first-round pick in 2020, the former LSU corner struggled with injury and was later traded to the Carolina Panthers for a fifth-round pick in 2021.
The 6’0, 204-pound corner has played in 49 career NFL games, starting 32. Over his career, Henderson has recorded 172 total tackles, three interceptions, and 16 passes defensed. In 2023 with the Panthers, he started seven games, recording 39 total tackles and two passes defensed.
Henderson signed with the Houston Texans as a free agent in 2024, but was released during cutdowns.
With the Steelers’ 53-man roster full, the Henderson signing will have to correlate with a release; Pittsburgh will likely send outside linebacker Ade Ogundeji back to the practice squad this week with Nick Herbig expected to return to the lineup.
Elsewhere on the cornerback front, Cory Trice Jr. is eligible to return from injured reserve starting this week against the Giants.
In terms of the odds for these games, the Ravens are favored by 4.5 points and the Chargers are 1.5 point favorites. For my best bet, I’m going to do a same-game parlay for each of the unders at +252 odds.
The Bucs put up 51 against the Saints, and Baker Mayfield leads the league in touchdown passes, but Tampa Bay hasn’t faced a defense as good as Baltimore this season. The Ravens offense is one of physicality, not explosive plays. In a similar light, the Chargers will look to control the ball and the clock while the Cardinals have been somewhat disappointing offensively this season.
Final Predictions:
Ravens 24, Buccaneers 20
Chargers 20, Cardinals 16
What are your predictions for tonight’s game? Join your fellow Steelers fans in the comments for the final open thread of the week.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 5-2 and sitting atop the AFC North after a 37-15 win over the New York Jets. In what was a second consecutive massive win for the Steelers, there was a lot to like, so let’s get into it.
Varsity
QB Russell Wilson
I’ll eat my crow now. I hated the idea of changing quarterbacks – it made so sense to me. And after three consecutive three-and-out drives, I was ready for a change. But then, Wilson and the offense settled in. He finished the game 16-of-29 for 264 yards and two touchdowns, and added a rushing touchdown from the goal line to give him three total scores on the night. His 264 yards are the most in team history for a quarterback making his Steelers debut, and the offense put on a show en route to 31 unanswered points.
CB Beanie Bishop
Beanie Bishop’s first interception off Aaron Rodgers completely changed the course of the game. It led to the Steelers scoring their first touchdown just before halftime and pulling to within two. His second interception set up the Russell Wilson sneak from the one yard-line to put the Steelers up eight. Bishop has had a lot of rough moments in the first two months of the season, but this was a tremendous showing from an undrafted rookie that helped Pittsburgh turn the tide.
RB Najee Harris
Harris had his second consecutive 100-yard game, and it looks like Arthur Smith is figuring out to just have him run north and south instead of side to side to find yardage. He’s becoming the consistent, big chunk back Pittsburgh was hoping he would be when they drafted him. Maybe that leads to him returning to Pittsburgh with a new deal.
WR George Pickens
Pickens made multiple contested catches, which has become to him what the Sweet Chin Music was for Shawn Michaels. He had five receptions for 111 yards and a touchdown.
TEs Pat Freiermuth & Darnell Washington
Freiermuth only had two catches but they were for 21 and 30 yards, respectively. Darnell Washington deserves a shout here, too, since we’re talking about tight ends. The two big pass-catching options caught a combined six passes for 87 yards.
LB Payton Wilson
Wilson was all over the field, leading the team with 10 tackles and seemingly always being where the ball was. A good night for the rookie.
S DeShon Elliott
Elliott is a legitimate All-Pro to this point in the season. He has such a high football IQ, always finding his way to the ball-carrier, flying in from the secondary to make tackles in the backfield (he had another TFL on Sunday), and has consistently been this team’s Swiss army knife. he had six tackles, the aforementioned tackle for loss, and a hit on Aaron Rodgers.
CB Joey Porter Jr
Davante Adams only had three catches for 30 yards on the night – the newest addition to Porter Island.
DL Larry Ogunjobi
Ogunjobi had two tackles and the Steelers’ lone sack on the night on Rodgers. He had an additional three hits on the quarterback, so he was constantly wreaking havoc.
DL Dean Lowry
Lowry blocked the Jets field goal that kept the game at 23-15 and led to Pittsburgh driving down the field and making it a 30-15 game. This is the second time this season the Steelers have blocked a kick on Sunday Night Football.
OC Arthur Smith
Art was in his bag like it was a Terrifier movie. Whether it was efficient runs with Harris and Jaylen Warren or dialing up deep shots to Pickens, or a terrific scissors concept that left Calvin Austin completely uncovered for a 36-yard gain, Smith called a fantastic game. The Steelers finished with over 400 yards of offense and have scored 30+ points in consecutive weeks.
HC Mike Tomlin
Very few people defended the decision of Tomlin to start Wilson, but he looks like a genius right now. We all have our qualms when it comes to Tomlin’s shortcomings, but we also need to give credit where it’s due.
Junior-Varsity
Tackling
The Steelers open-field tackling was abysmal. Multiple times, their lack of ability to bring down Breece Hall led to big gains. He had catches of 18, 13, and 57 yards.
Finishing
While Pittsburgh was able to punch it in four times from the red zone, they could have had even more. On the first drive, they had a good series of plays that were suddenly halted and they settled for a 46-yard field goal. They got into the red zone again in the first half and were at the shadow of the goal line and failed to punch it in for six. Pittsburgh needs to get better at finishing earlier in the game rather than everything coming together later on.
Takeaways, overreactions, and random musings from the Steelers’ biggest win of the season.
The Steelers avenged Week 5’s disappointment against the Dallas Cowboys in primetime by vastly outperforming expectations in Week 7’s Sunday Night Football, defeating the New York Jets with a convincing final score of 37-15. As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had:
Good or bad performance, Russell Wilson was always going to be the story of this week’s game. I’ll be honest, while I was never quite as down on Russ as others, I wanted the Steelers to stick with Justin Fields heading into Week 7. But Mike Tomlin proved that he had a point with starting the veteran.
Early on though, it wasn’t as cheery. Boos rained down on Wilson midway through the first half. They were premature, but not entirely unwarranted. Wilson clearly didn’t have the mobility of Fields, and following two hilariously bad underthrows, he wasn’t exactly looking any better in the passing game.
But a banged-up Jets secondary gave Wilson a chance to shake off the Russt early, and he sure did. 264 passing yards and three total touchdowns; no turnovers, a 30-plus point day, and the biggest win of the season. What a debut.
Wilson deserves all the praise he’ll get this week and more, especially after a dismal past two years that left many doubting his abilities.
But I do have my gripes, and before you yell at me in the comment section, feel free to browse through my past articles and see that it took me a while to warm up to Justin Fields as well. Wilson looked good, not great on Sunday.
We can start off with the good, though. Wilson was active pre-snap and looked more in control of the offense than Fields ever did. The All-22 will reveal the truth, but it felt like he was seeing the field better, too.
And although Wilson was brought down on a few plays where Fields would’ve gained plus yardage with his legs, he wasn’t a statue in the pocket, either. It was especially impressive given the Pittsburgh O-line’s early struggles.
Wilson’s ball placement wasn’t the sharpest all night, but a big change from Fields was the air that he placed under passes (it’s overused, but “moon ball”). Instead of darting throws downfield, Wilson arced his passes to give his receivers a better chance at getting in position to make big catches. George Pickens’ 111 yards and a touchdown reflect that.
It is worth noting that Wilson was benefited by a lot of circus catches throughout the game, avoided the middle of the field like the plague once again, and was going up against a Jets defense down most of its starters in the secondary.
Is this the case for Justin Fields? No. Obviously, obviously stick with Russ next week.
But don’t go crowning the Steelers’ season as substantially changed just yet. It’s just one game with a lot still to work on. On the other hand, you’d think Wilson has nowhere to go but up following his first game of the season. Sunday’s debut was good news.
2. Big game Beanie Bishop
Russell Wilson had his detractors, but no one had more doubters on the Steelers than UDFA slot corner Beanie Bishop Jr., who was universally seen as the weak link in the Pittsburgh defense entering Week 7. With New York trotting out Davante Adams, Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard, and Mike Williams on Sunday, the slot looked like a promising matchup for the offense. Even I highlighted Bishop as a likely target in the Five Questions with the Enemy segment on Gang Green Nation ahead of the game.
Instead, Bishop responded with the first two interceptions of his young career against a future Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers. I’m not sure if it gets any sweeter than that.
The first was an absurd one-handed grab, while the second was more of a gift following a Garett Wilson drop (maybe Bishop got a hand on the ball to affect it). But that second interception, and the following runback, was also the point in the game where the tide turned definitively in Pittsburgh’s favor.
If Bishop can continue to ascend, it would be a huge boost for a Pittsburgh defense that’s been looking to fill the nickel corner position long-term ever since Mike Hilton left. And the better Bishop plays, the less we’ll see of Cam Sutton post-suspension. There are countless reasons to root for the UDFA corner to succeed this season.
3. Special plays on special teams
Just about everyone on Pittsburgh’s special teams unit deserves a gold star following Sunday’s matchup. Chris Boswell was perfect yet again. Corliss Waitman landed three of his four punts inside the 20-yard line, and punt coverage has gone from a weakness to a strength this season. Former first-round pick Terrell Edmunds has been a surprisingly excellent addition at gunner.
But the kickblocks are the real story. One was called back due to a ticky-tack leverage penalty on Minkah Fitzpatrick, but the Steelers were able to get one that counted later, this time on a field goal attempt that would’ve given New York some much-needed second-half momentum. Instead, a wall of Steelers defenders rose in the center of the formation, and the Jets were scoreless in the last 30 minutes of the game.
With the punt unit struggles seemingly cleaned up this year, Danny Smith’s group has been excellent. It was a dominant special teams performance against the Jets.
4. What we expected… finally
There was a lot of well-deserved hype around the Steelers’ running back duo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren entering 2024, but through the first quarter of the season, it wasn’t living up to the hype. Harris was struggling behind the Steelers’ offensive line while Warren clearly wasn’t healthy.
Against the Raiders, Harris finally had a big game, but this was the week where it clicked for both backs. Najee had another 100-yard performance, averaging nearly five per carry and recording a touchdown. Warren finally saw a decent workload and looked like his usual explosive self, logging 44 rushing yards, 15 receiving yards, and three total first downs, including a big third-and-long conversion on the drive that would eventually put the Steelers up by two scores.
With its countless injuries, the Steelers’ O-line remains a liability in pass protection, but led by guard Isaac Seumalo, their drive in the run game has shown some promise over the last few weeks. If you want to see the Pittsburgh passing game continue to make strides, having a run game to keep defenses honest will be an important step, and it looks like the Steelers finally have the pieces to make it happen.
5. Odds and ends
Alex Highsmith had a huge game on Sunday, with pressures that resulted in a number of bad throws by Rodgers. Having him back in the lineup was a massive boost for Pittsburgh.
The Jets’ quick passing game meant the Steelers were going to have a tough time getting home to the quarterback. Instead, the pass rush responded by getting its hands in the air and batting down several crucial throws—a great adjustment by the defense.
Pittsburgh’s defense showed some creative pressures on Sunday. Credit where it’s due, Teryl Austin. Having a line of scrimmage demons like DeShon Elliott at safety has to help, as well.
I’ll have to verify later, but it looks like James Pierre had a solid outing at cornerback in place of an injured Donte Jackson. New York didn’t have much go right offensively in the second half.
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith also deserves some credit after facing plenty of criticism over the last few weeks. The Steelers scored on every drive in the second half, both the run game and passing game were moving the ball, and there were open wide receivers.
A mind-blowing stat:
In three years under Matt Canada, the Steelers had 0 400-yard games.
It was good to see Van Jefferson finally record a big play with a touchdown grab against the Jets. The Steelers still need more at WR2, but Jefferson did contribute to the win.
Darnell Washington with four catches was not a stat line I ever thought I’d see. It’s good to see Pittsburgh getting him involved.
Wilson was on fire in the second half, but I’m still surprised that we never saw a Justin Fields package during the game. I still think it’ll be utilized later this season at some point, as every Wilson quarterback sneak had me holding my breath.
Ryan McCollum at center deserves some credit. He didn’t have the cleanest game, but Quinnen Williams wasn’t mentioned much on the broadcast.
The referees were all over the place on Sunday, blowing the whistle too early on some plays and then setting a precedent with an unnecessary roughness call on Larry Ogunjobi just to never call it again.
While it worked out great, I’m not sure why the Steelers felt the need to continue to go for it on fourth down during their final drive. Kick the easy field goal, go up by three scores, and guarantee the victory.
Breece Hall’s 141 total yards are unacceptable, especially looking at the number of open-field missed tackles by the Steelers. If there’s one thing to work on from their big win, it’s that.
Davante Adams lost to the same team in back-to-back weeks… not important, but kind of funny.
Up next, the Steelers have an extra day to prepare ahead of Week 8’s Monday Night Football versus the New York Giants. A 5-2 start has been great, but 6-2 is even better.
What are your takeaways from Steelers vs. Jets? Agree/disagree with the ones above?Join our Behind The Steel Curtain community and let us know in the comments!
The Steelers beat the Jets 37-15 in Week 7 to improve to 5-2. Check out their complete schedule and results for the 2024 season. All times are Eastern Time.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 5-2 through Week 7 of the 2024 NFL season. They are in first place in the AFC North. The Steelers beat the Jets 37-15 last week.
The Steelers QB made a huge statement in his team debut
After a week full of discourse surrounding the pending quarterback change, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Russell Wilson shut up a lot of doubters – myself included – in a 37-15 win over the New York Jets, scoring the most points in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era.
Let’s start by talking about Wilson because he was terrific tonight. After a shaky start that included three three-and-outs in the teams first four drives, Wilson led Pittsburgh to 31 unanswered points, and looked like vintage Russ in the process. He went 16-of-29 for 264 yards, which is the most by a Steelers quarterback in their debut in team history. He also threw two touchdowns. The first of which capped off a drive that was set up by the first of two Beanie Bishop interceptions where Wilson hit George Pickens on a one-on-one fade in the back of the end zone to give No. 14 his first score of the year. The second was to Van Jefferson to give the Steelers a 15-point lead and got them their second straight 30-point game. On the night, Wilson had seven completions of 15 or more yards and finished with an EPA per play of 0.32. For comparison, the league leader in EPA per play is Jayden Daniels, who has an EPA pf 0.21. I was very outspoken about being against the quarterback change – I’ll eat my crow and give my flowers to Russell Wilson and Mike Tomlin in a tremendous performance.
Now, for the rest of the team. How about Beanie Bishop? Two interceptions that set up Steelers touchdowns. Dean Lowry blocked a field goal in the second half to keep the Steelers up by eight – that’s the second time this season the Steelers have blocked a field goal on Sunday Night Football. Keeanu Benton made multiple terrific plays, including breaking up a screen play and then just moments later batting down a pass on fourth down to all but end the game. DeShon Elliott continues to fly all over the field and play at an All-Pro level. He had six tackles. Payton Wilson was also constantly around the ball and led the team with 10 tackles. Overall the defense wasn’t perfect – the tackling in particular was rough all night and led to multiple big catches and runs by Breece Hall. However, this was another really good showing by the defense.
In terms of the skill position players, this was a night of everyone getting a share of the meal. Najee Harris had his second consecutive 100-yard game and put the exclamation point on the Steelers’ work by scoring a touchdown with 26 seconds left. The offensive line deserves a lot of credit, as well by helping pave the way for a 149 yard performance on the ground. George Pickens finished the night with five catches and 11 yards and the aforementioned touchdown. Jaylen Warren looked like his old self with 44 yards on the ground on 12 carries, and a big third down catch where he made a defender miss and moved the chains. Six Steelers had at least one catch tonight.
It took a little bit for the offense to find its rhythm, but once they did, the dam broke. Should they continue this consistency, this could be the team that fans have been waiting for – a team that can not just sneak into the playoffs, but a team that can make some real noise.
The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t disappoint Sunday evening, managing a 30-15 win over the New York Jets in primetime. They’ve improved to 5-2 now and have seemingly opened up the playbook with Wilson, with explosive plays and a supplemental run game.
Russell Wilson finished his debut in Pittsburgh with 264 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown and no interceptions.
Among the accolades Wilson collected on Sunday night, per Brooke Pryor of ESPN:
Most passing yards by a QB in their first game with the Steelers in franchise history
The Steelers’ final total of 37 points tied for their third-highest point total since Week 11 of the 2021 season where the Steelers scored 37 total points but lost to the Los Angeles Chargers, who dropped a 41-burger.
It was an all-in effort in this game, with not just the offense stepping up — the defense did, too. UDFA cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. shined in this outing, reeling in not one but two interceptions against future Pro Football Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers finished his first game with WR Davante Adams — a trade target for the Pittsburgh Steelers just a week ago — with 276 passing yards, 1 TD and 2 INT.
Has Wilson done enough to earn the start in Week 8?
