The Pittsburgh Steelers will have Brad Rogers as their referee for Sunday’s season opener at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for their Week 1 matchup with the Atlanta Falcons, per Football Zebras. Rogers worked one Steelers game last season, the team’s 16-10 Week 12 win over the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium.
He’s entering his sixth season as a referee after beginning his career as an NFL official as a field judge. The first game he ever worked in the NFL was as a field judge in a 26-9 win for the Steelers over the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 17, 2017.
The Steelers are 3-1 in games that Rogers has been the referee, with wins in 2021 over the Denver Broncos and Tennessee Titans and a loss to the New York Jets in 2022, a game in which Kenny Pickett made his NFL debut.
Last season, Rogers and his crew called offensive holding more than any other penalty, calling it 51 times, with 28 calls coming against the home team. They also called 29 false start penalties while calling defensive pass interference and defensive holding 14 times each. In the Steelers-Bengals game last season, Cincinnati was called for five penalties for 36 yards, while the Steelers racked up five penalties for 55 yards, per nflpenalties.com.
Rogers’ crew has undergone a lot of changes from last season. Roddy Ames is currently the replay official on Rogers’ crew after working with referee Adrian Hill last season. Bryan Neale will serve as the umpire, a role he held on Shaun Smith’s crew last season. Joe Blubaugh also joins as the field judge after serving on Bill Vinovich’s crew last season, while back judge Greg Yette comes over from Brad Allen’s controversial crew last season. The last change is Artenzia Young-Siegler joining Rogers’ crew as the replay assistant after being the replay official for Ronald Torbert’s crew last season.
Given the crew changes, there isn’t much to glean from how this crew will call games, and while things might be tougher for the Steelers in a road environment when it comes to potential pre-snap penalties, they took over Atlanta last time they played the Falcons in 2022.
It should be a good matchup on Sunday, and Rogers seems to be regarded as a strong official, so it should be a well-called game.
