Winners and losers from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 20-12 loss to the Houston Texans in their 2024 preseason opener.
Winners
RB Jonathan Ward
Ward continues to make a strong case for being the Steelers’ top running back on the practice squad. As anticipated, he was the first back to enter the game after Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren got their work in. He showed the speed he displayed in training camp with a 20-yard run down the left sideline, recording four carries for 25 yards in the first half. He chipped in a 5-yard screen on third down and a kick return to close out the first half.
Ward also saw action on the kick-return and punt-coverage units, creating versatility and additional value, while making a fourth quarter tackle on kick coverage. He was one of the team’s few offensive bright spots in the first half. Ward did a bit of everything in this game, and that’s a big boost to his odds of sticking around.
NT Montravius Adams
Adams is a preseason and summer champ similar to OLB Anthony Chickillo and WR Gunner Olszewski. After a solid string of camp performances, Adams carried that over inside a stadium. Picking up extra snaps after NT Keeanu Benton’s eye injury (who was also playing well before exiting), Adams batted down a pass and sacked QB Davis Mills, ripping through a block to make the play. He’ll serve as the Steelers’ backup nose tackle who could rotate into sub-packages when the team needs to mix in some backups.
ILB Payton Wilson
Wilson was credited with a tackle for loss on the first play of his NFL career, a poetic moment for a high-upside talent. Wilson roamed sideline to sideline and was around the ball the entire first half, leading the team with six solo tackles after the first 30 minutes.
Wilson was quick to the flat and moved well in space. He also did an excellent job diagnosing and reading the play. Tonight, he started alongside Elandon Roberts with Patrick Queen held out. That won’t be the case come Week 1 assuming everyone is healthy, but Wilson should rotate with Roberts early in the regular season. He’ll also work on special teams, as he did tonight.
DL/OLB DeMarvin Leal
Leal continues to ascend this summer. Playing outside linebacker and interior defensive line in sub-packages, Leal recorded a sack for an 11-yard takedown and saw consistent pressure.
He continues to press for a roster spot and could sneak in as the sixth defensive lineman and potentially even the fourth outside linebacker now that Markus Golden has retired.
Play-action
A foreign concept for several years, new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith will use more play-action than Pittsburgh has utilized in a long time. It had success and resulted in long completions to WRs Van Jefferson, Dez Fitzpatrick, and Scotty Miller.
Smith and the Steelers can balance a healthy running game with play fakes to create chunk plays and keep defenses off balance. It’s just one game, and overall the offense struggled, but it’s a promising view into how the regular season will be built. Overall, Smith called a good game in his Steelers coordinator debut.
OLB Kyron Johnson
Late add to this list. Johnson had two strong run stops on the Texans’ final possession and also got some pressure earlier in the game. Explosive and a threat off the edge, Johnson has special teams value and spent the latter half of the 2023 season on the Steelers’ roster. He’s competing hard for the fourth outside linebacker spot with Jeremiah Moon, who picked up a sack in this game off a free rush.
Second-Team Offensive Line Run Blocking
The second-team offensive line created several lanes for the Steelers’ running backs. RB Jaylen Warren, Jonathan Ward, and Daijun Edwards had lanes open up thanks to the big guys up front. Notably, rookie center Zach Frazier, who played deep into this game, seemed to push his weight around well, including on Edwards’ short-yardage touchdown. Frazier’s keeping the heat on Nate Herbig to start.
Losers
WR/PR Quez Watkins
And I use “punt returner” in the loosest of terms. Watkins was chosen to be the first Steeler to return punts. It was a disaster. After fair catching his first attempt despite no Texans within 10 yards of him, he had poor posture on his second return, attempting to field the ball over his shoulder. He muffed the punt and couldn’t recover it, turning it over and giving the ball to Houston. The Texans took advantage and put the ball in the end zone as they built a 17-point first-half lead.
Watkins has been stuck toward the bottom of the receiver depth chart and did nothing to help his cause to make the 53-man roster.
Troy Fautanu’s Pass Protection
While Fautanu run blocked well and we’ll need to comb through the All-22 to get a complete evaluation, pass protection was a different story. He was greeted by Texans prize free agent addition Danielle Hunter, beating him to the edge for a sack on QB Justin Fields in the first quarter. Later, Fautanu struggled with a power and inside rush, issues he has had in training camp.
It’s just one game and these are good learning experiences, especially facing top-end talent like Hunter. But it’s something to watch for the rest of the preseason if Fautanu wants to nail down the starting right tackle gig.
Football Fundamentals
Sloppy Steelers was the theme of this one. Two bad center-quarterback exchanges from Nate Herbig to Justin Fields (who has had essentially zero issues in camp), a handful of penalties ranging from Dez Fitzpatrick running out of bounds on a punt return to a Joey Porter Jr. pass interference to Watkins’ muffed punt. Pittsburgh did as good a job beating itself as Houston did.
Some of that can be blamed on the Steelers stepping inside a stadium for the first time while the Texans benefited from playing in the Hall of Fame Game last week. Still, it’s below-the-line play that made some evaluations difficult and robbed the team of reps.
