Steelers News: Lamar Jackson IN & Kyle Dugger OUT For Week 14 + George Pickens MELTS DOWN After TNF

Steelers News: Lamar Jackson IN & Kyle Dugger OUT For Week 14 + George Pickens MELTS DOWN After TNF

Welcome in to Steelers Talk. I’m your host, Jax Sperry. We’re just a couple days away from Ravens week, man. Steelers versus Ravens here in week 14 and an absolutely massive matchup between the Black and Gold and the Rapirds. We’re going to be going live for that game, guys, on Sunday starting at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time on the channel. So, if you guys want to join the largest Steelers watch parties anywhere here on YouTube during this season, make sure you click that subscribe button. We’re also going to get you guys some more coverage tomorrow in case there’s practice squad elevations, anything like that. Um, but today we’ve got injury updates for you guys. We got quite a bit to talk about. So, let’s just jump right in. We’ll start with the Ravens. Uh, Lamar Jackson, who missed practice yesterday, was back at practice today and he is officially a go for Sunday afternoon. Just like I said on yesterday’s show, guys, I really, really doubt that Lamar Jackson was ever going to miss this game. apparently got stepped on on Wednesday’s practice and he’s dealing with a little bit of a bum ankle right now which should affect his mobility. Uh but he will be out there on Sunday to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in so far their biggest game of the 2025 NFL season. Now I will say this and this was the case even before he got stepped on this week. Lamar Jackson has not been moving around the same way that we expect Lamar Jackson to be moving around. Um, you know, and he’s not he’s not his normal MVP caliber self. All right. He’s his pressure to sack ratio is like 25% this year. That is way higher than his career average. Um, you know, he’s not pulling the trigger in the in the pocket with the same kind of decisiveness that we’re used to seeing. And his production has really suffered because of that, especially since coming back from that hamstring injury. So, he’s been dealing with a bunch of different stuff. A couple weeks ago, it was a foot issue. Of course, he dealt with the hamstring. Now, it’s an ankle. Uh there’s a lot of lower body issues going on with Lamar Jackson at this point in time. So if you’re expecting him to run over all over the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, I wouldn’t expect that. Um he still has a lot of arm talent. So that that still needs to be dealt with, of course. And I still think Lamar gives the Ravens a better chance of winning this week compared to say Snoop Huntley who would have started if Lamar couldn’t go. But it’s not like Lamar Jackson playing um is necessarily going to be my biggest worry in this football game, guys. My biggest worry, as I’ve been discussing all week, is the Steelers run defense going up against Derrick Henry in this Ravens rushing attack. Of course, Henry just completely carved up the Pittsburgh Steelers run defense um last year in the final two games that this team played against the Ravens. And uh just last week, you know, we saw something very similar against the Buffalo Bills where James Cook ran for 144 yards. Uh it was the most rushing yards given up by a Steelers defense in Acer Stadium history. Um it was embarrassing, right? So to come off that performance and to have Derek Harmon still out of the lineup this week, uh and now as we’ll talk about later, Kyle Duggar, your your best rundefending safety being out this week and your strong safety, um those are two pretty key cogs in the machine here to stop Derrick Henry on the defensive side of the ball. So really does come down to this for me, guys. If the Steelers can stop Derrick Henry in the run game and they can contain him, maybe force a fumble or two from Derrick Henry, he’s had some fumbles this year, um the Steelers will have a chance to win this ball game even on the road. But if they can’t do that and if Lamar and if Derrick Henry once again just runs all over the Steelers defense, the Steelers are going to lose this ball game. So that’s still the number one thing the Steelers defense needs to take advantage of and needs to do in this ball game if they want to win. Uh but the final you know Ravens injury update here that you guys should know about is that starting corner Nate Wiggins will be playing on Sunday as well. Uh he has been given the full go. Uh so it’ll be him and either Marlon Humphrey or Cheeto Auzier on the other side of him on Sunday afternoon. So keep that in mind. Nate Wiggins will be playing on Sunday. Now we shift our focus to the Pittsburgh Steelers injury report where the big news of the day is that Kyle Duggar, the starting strong safety, is officially out with a hand injury. He suffered that hand injury in Wednesday’s practice and he is not going to be able to go. Now the question now becomes does Chuck Clark go in there as the starting strong safety or does Jabril Peppers come in at that point? If you listen to the depth chart on the Pittsburgh Steelers website, it would indicate that it’s going to be Jabril Peppers and Jabril was talking after practice today about how he’s been waiting for this opportunity to get more playing time. So that indicates that Jabril Peppers could be in line to start. But then there’s some reporting out there from guys like Nick Farah, from Penn Live, and others that Chuck Clark is expected to start on Sunday. So, there’s some mixed reporting out there. We’ll see if we get an answer before kickoff on Sunday. But I just to give my two cents on this, guys, if I’m Mike Tomlin, if I’m Terrell Austin, it’s not even a discussion for me. Chuck Clark has had a lot of struggles playing in the Steelers defense this year. He’s slow. Uh he doesn’t have nearly the instincts that you need. Um and his tackling has not been up to snuff either. And I think that that’s going to be really really big this week is to stop the Ravens run game as we have talked about time and time again, not only on this video, but in previous videos this week. So I think uh Jabril Peppers has to be the starting strong safety. He played actually really well in his only lone start this season. It was in week three versus the New England Patriots. And what’ they do? They shut down the Patriots run game, forced multiple fumbles. Peppers was one of the people that recovered a fumble and forced one. um his PFF grade was over a 90 in that game and he hasn’t seen a start since. So, I know the Steelers really like using Jabril as a special teams ace and all that different stuff. Um but you got to you got to be, you know, on your P’s and Q’s. You got to be tightened up on the defensive side of the ball if you want to win this game. Don’t think that’s going to be uh as likely or as possible with Chuck Clark in there at strong safety. I think Jabril Peppers gives this defense a fighting chance at containing Derrick Henry. and I love his competitiveness. I love his his experience. I love his versatility. Um, in my opinion, Jabril Peppers has to be the other starting safety along with Jaylen Ramsay on Sunday afternoon. But we’ll see if this Steelers coaching staff is smart enough to make that decision. Uh, but then the rest of the injury report pretty positive. Patrick Queen uh is a full go. Uh, no injury designation after suffering a glute injury last week against the Bills. So, he will be playing. Uh, James Pierre dealing with concussion protocol this week. he will be in this week as well. Um JJ or TJ Watt is a full go as well. Missed Wednesday’s practice with a toe injury that he’s dealing with, but he’s going to be good to go. And then Joey Porter Jr. who suffered an elbow injury in Wednesday’s practice was limited yesterday was a full participant. Today he’ll be good to go for Saturday or for Sunday I should say. Now the big question in terms of that bit of information is who’s going to be the number two starting outside corner. Last week James Pierre got the start over Asante Samuel Jr. Asante played quite a bit in relief of Pierre. Um, and now this week you’re going to have both Pierre and Samuel available to you. So, the question becomes which one gets the start on the outside? Last week Pierre got that start, but uh, Mike I think Mike Tomlin and Tara Lawson were both very complimentary of Asante Samuel Jr. in their press conferences this week. Um, so it wouldn’t shock me at all to see them give Samuel a crack at the starting job this week. Um, so definitely some moving pieces and some big question marks in the secondary for the Steelers heading into this football game. Who’s going to start at strong safety, Jabril Peppers or Chuck Clark? And who’s going to start at the second outside cornerback position, James Pierre or Asante Samuel Jr.? I’m guessing we’ll we’ll get answers to those questions probably um before kickoff, just before kickoff on Sunday. So, make sure you guys tune in to our pregame show on the watch party on Sunday afternoon to get that news before we kick things off. But also some bad news on the injury front today is that rookie uh quarterback that just got back uh to practice this week, Dante Kent. Um the Steelers are really high on Kent. Uh he was looking pretty good in training camp before he got injured and he’s been on IR ever since that injury. Finally gets uh on the practice list and uh you know the countdown. It’s 21-day practice window open this week and in his first practice back just like Cory Trice Jr. a couple weeks ago when he reagravated an injury um I believe in his second practice back from his 21-day practice window. Now the same thing has happened to Kent and reporting is indicating that this injury is likely to keep Kent out of the rest of his rookie season. So that’s really unfortunate. Um, it’ll be interesting to see actually if the Steelers bring in somebody at corner uh in the weeks to come here to be more cornerback depth because I think the Steelers were kind of banking on Kent being a little bit of depth for them at corner, specifically slot corner. And uh with him likely out for the rest of this season, they’re definitely getting light in that area, especially after letting go of Darius Slay and putting him on waiverss earlier this week. So, um, you feel for for Mr. Kent there? Um, you know, I think that he’s one of those guys heading into next year, kind of similar to Cory Trice coming off of his ACL tear a couple years ago. Um, I don’t think the Steelers are going to be banking on him by any stretch of the imagination, but he can be a quote unquote, you know, happy surprise type of guy where, you know, he could come into camp next year and and look really good and play really well and maybe earn himself, you know, a spot in the rotation on defense. Um, but the Steelers are not going to be assuming that heading into next season. He’s going to have to earn everything after missing his entire rookie season as a seventh round pick. Um Kent has certainly still got a lot to prove in this league before um you know the Steelers can get the type of player that they think they have in him because they are really high on what Dante Kent brings to the table and he was showing some good things before he got injured this year. So wishing him the best um and a full and speedy recovery so that when once we get to Latroe next year, you know, he can impress once again. But now talking about the wide receiver situation here in Pittsburgh heading into Sunday. It does sound like Adam Thelen will be playing on Sunday. He has really made a point about you know letting people know that he is doing a full crash course in Arthur Smith ease and uh with this Steelers offensive playbook and it sounds like he’s making progress in learning it and it definitely sounds like the Steelers are are fasttracking him to play on Sunday. I believe Mark Kaboli reported today that they’re planning on using him as a slot wide receiver, which would likely mean Calvin Austin third or Roman Wilson or both are going to be playing Z uh for the Pittsburgh Steelers down the stretch while Adam Thielen assumes that big slot role. So, you know, when I when I think about that guys, I’m really excited to see what Adam can do because, you know, everything that we have seen in practice this week indicates that he is moving really well. He’s moving really quick. People are are are raving about his route running ability in the building and his hands and all that great stuff. Um, so I would actually bet that Adam Thelen scores a touchdown this week. I think if there’s any Steelers wide receiver, um, you know, along with DK Metaf that scores a touchdown this week, I think the in his first game, Rogers is going to be trying to get him the ball, try to make this game special for him. Um, you know, if you’re a betting man, you know, you’re looking for an anytime touchdown on somebody, I think Adam Theland would be a good bet. Um, but speaking of the wide receiver room, uh, Nick Farab said on Pittsburgh radio today that he thinks Marquez Vald is scaling is going to play this week for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s finally going to be elevated off of the practice squad. Now, if that happens, I would expect Scotty Miller to be a healthy scratch. Scotty’s been somebody that’s made the game day roster for most games this year, but, you know, he hasn’t really done anything, you know, at all. So, and that includes when Calvin Austin the third was out with his injury. So, I I I I would be supportive of putting MVS, you know, giving him a helmet. Um, I I don’t know how much time he would see on the field, but, you know, he does have that experience with Aaron Rodgers. He’s obviously got a lot of speed. Did some good things last year with the New Orleans Saints when he got an opportunity and he was able to get the football. So, maybe Aaron Rogers just feels like Calvin Austin the third, Roman Wilson, these guys are a little bit too slight, a little bit too small. Um, I want some more size in here. And it’s possible that we could see, you know, some packages where we’ve got uh Adam Thielen in the slot, Marquez Valdez scantling at Z, and then DK Metaf at X. Like, it’s very possible that we could see that kind of package for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I’ve been uh kind of contemplating whether or not the Steelers might go to a little bit more of a spread offense and maybe put four receivers out there on the field at times, even though we know that they’ve got a lot of tight ends here. Darnell Washington, Pat Fmouth, John Smith. um you know the the heavy tight end stuff has just not worked uh at the level especially as of late uh compared to what the Steelers would want. So maybe Aaron Rogers and Arthur Smith are going to maybe change lanes here a little bit and and try to change courses late into the season and try and catch a spark because um obviously time is running out on this season and the Steelers have had some success running some spread stuff this year especially when they run in between the tackles with Jaylen Warren and Kenny Gainwell. Obviously, those guys are not bruising backs. Uh they’re more shifty backs. So, when you go spread, you have more room in between the tackles there with just the five offensive linemen and the lighter boxes that you face. Um so, that could be something that the Steelers are going to try. Something tells me we’re going to see, you know, a different style of Steelers offense on Sunday and they’re going to try and catch the Ravens off guard because you better believe the Ravens are are preparing for the jumbo personnel packages and they’re preparing for, you know, all this different stuff we’ve seen from the Steelers offense as of late. Uh but it really wouldn’t shock me at all if we see something a bit different from the Pittsburgh Steelers, both in terms of personnel and in terms of identity um here in week 14 to try and get a a big time win on the road in Baltimore. Now, the last thing I want to talk about here, guys, is something that’s being talked about a lot on Steelers Twitter. So, I wanted to put in my two cents here, uh which is that George Pickkins is is starting to finally show his true colors in Dallas, it appears. Um, as last night on Thursday Night Football, really, it felt like a must-win game for the Dallas Cowboys against the Detroit Lions, uh, CD Lamb exits the game with a concussion and George Pickins does not play his best game. And, you know, something that we have seen a lot as Steelers fans on his film when he was here in Pittsburgh, him not running routes 100%. He’s getting blasted uh on Cowboys Twitter, on NFL Twitter today, uh, for really going nonchalant on a lot of his routes last night in a must-win game. Um, and it’s even drawing criticism from guys like Richard Richard Sherman um on the Thursday Night Football postgame show saying that he looked disinterested and all this different stuff. And then today, George Pickins on IG um unleashed a you know, profanity laced um you know, meltdown on IG, you know, calling out Richard Sherman, you know, saying that he wasn’t that good of a player, all this different stuff. And um you know, calling him a fraud, all these different things. And it was just it just reminded me and it just I think it should remind everybody in this fan base, this is why the the Pittsburgh Steelers traded George Pickkins away. This is why uh the Dallas Cowboys were the only team in the entire league that was willing to pay a third round pick for this guy despite how talented he is. It’s just because of the off-field antics that just come with the George Pickkins experience. And the Steelers wanted to get that out of their locker room and they were willing to, you know, take a price tag that was less than his talent to be able to do that. And as I’ve said on this channel, guys, that doesn’t change the fact that the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t do a good enough job getting him the football when he was here and and making the most of his skill set. That doesn’t mean that the Steelers um, you know, did a good job replacing him during the offseason at wide receiver, too, and at the trade deadline. Obviously, they did not. None of that changes the mistakes that the Steelers made with George Pickkins. But, you know, I think Pickkins really cost himself a lot of money with his comments towards Richard Sherman today and of course with his play last week because, you know, I think last night was the perfect example of like George Pickins is not a winning football player. All right? Like that like in terms of games that you should be motivated to run your routes, you know, full speed with full effort, all that different stuff. That was one of those games where like you you have to play well. You know, it’s a it’s a must-win game for your squad. it’s on the road prime time game um you know against you know another team that’s fighting for playoff positioning in the NFC and if you lose the game your team has less than a 10% chance of making the playoffs like that feels like a must-win game and you know he just looked disinterested I have to agree with Richard Sherman on that and you know the fact that Pickkins completely melted down on IG today just shows the lack of maturity there the lack of professionalism stuff that we don’t want in this Steelers locker him. So, even though Pickkins is a is an allworld caliber talent, and you know, he’s going to continue to have good games throughout his career, and I’m sure in those games, Steelers fans will lament how the Steelers don’t have him on the team. But like, it’s moments like this that remind you that there’s more than just the football player, right? This is this isn’t Madden. You have to deal with the human being as much as you have to enjoy the player that you have on the field. And, you know, it’s a balancing act. And you know, I’m I’m just not sure if any team in the National Football League is going to be able to properly balance George Pickkins. Um I obviously I hope that George, you know, figures things out in terms of his maturity and his professionalism. And um I’m hoping he can figure that out because, you know, I genuinely do believe he’s got a good heart at his core. And um you know, I want to see him succeed, but it’s just at this point he’s had so many opportunities to get right and get that part of his um of his profile figured out. And at least to this point, it hasn’t been figured out. So, um at the end of the day here, man, if the Steelers can find that long-term wide receiver too to pair with DK Metaf 3, four years down the line here, I think we’re going to be looking at the George Pickin situation and saying the Steelers probably made the right decision letting him go. So, that’s where I’m going to leave you guys today. Man, I appreciate you sitting here listening uh to me here today. Uh we’re going to have more Steelers content for you guys tomorrow. We’ve got a really interesting um QB spotlight video tomorrow. I’m going to let you guys know who I believe is the most likely target for the Pittsburgh Steelers at the quarterback position in 2026. And we also have our mailbag. Uh, also if we get any inj MVS being elevated from the practice squad or anything like that, I’ll make sure to get some content on this channel for you guys. And as always, we will be going live on Sunday for Steelers game day. This is one of the biggest ones of the year, maybe the biggest one of the year to this point, guys. Steelers, Ravens, Ravens week on the road for the division lead, which is four games left to go. Man, I can’t wait. Make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already and join us on Sunday at 12:00 p.m.

Pittsburgh Steelers news on Friday, December 5th, is centering around the final Steelers injury report before their highly-anticipated divisional showdown with the Baltimore Ravens this weekend. On today’s show, Steelers Talk host Jack Sperry comes to you from his home to share his thoughts on Lamar Jackson playing through a new ankle injury this week to Kyle Dugger being out this week to George Pickens melting down on social media today after his lackluster performance vs. the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football last night.

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