Steelers News: James Pierre OUT For Monday Night Football, Asante Samuel Jr. Gets His 1st Start

Steelers News: James Pierre OUT For Monday Night Football, Asante Samuel Jr. Gets His 1st Start

Welcome in to Steelers Talk. I’m your host, Jax Sperry. Today I’ve got some updates surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers for you guys here as we prepare for Monday Night Football versus the Miami Dolphins. Now, obviously tomorrow the Steelers do not play, but the Ravens and Bengals sure do. And uh we’ll make sure to get you guys uh the very latest surrounding the Steelers injury update, the official injury report uh that comes out tomorrow, as well as the results of Ravens Bengals and how that affects the stakes of this Monday night matchup against the Miami Dolphins in Pittsburgh in a couple of days here. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already um because we’re going to get you guys the very latest surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers, getting you guys ready for Monday Night Football. And then, of course, we have our live watch party on Monday night. That all starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. Over an hour of pregame coverage, then live playbyplay and analysis of the game itself and then uh live postgame reaction as well. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. And let’s get into today’s updates here. Starting with James Pierre, uh the corner that has just been an absolute re revelation for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year on defense, especially with Darius Slay, um you know, kind of flaming out here in Pittsburgh this year and having that signing be a complete disaster. Having a guy like James Pierre, who is playing at like the vet minimum right now, come in and he’s the second highest graded corner in football right now. Uh it’s been completely remarkable to see Pierre completely turn his uh his status in this league around in just this season coming in as a backup this year. And he’s been incredible, man. He had that one-handed spinning interception versus the Ravens last week. Unfortunately, he will be out this week with a calf injury. Um so that’s going to be a blow to the Steelers secondary um heading into Monday night. But you still got Joey Porter Jr. who’s been playing very, very well in man coverage this year. And then on the other side of him, Asante Samuel Jr. will be making his uh first Steelers start of his Steelers tenure. And you know, as much as James has played well for the Steelers this year, you know, having a guy like ASJ to come off the bench and be a starting corner for you this week is absolutely huge. Now, if Asante goes down, then we’re going to start getting into a little bit of trouble here. Um or if even Joey Porton Jr. goes down with an injury, we might start having a little bit of trouble. Might have to put Jaylen Ramsay back at at slot corner and put Eckles on the outside. Um if one of these starting outside corners go down with an injury, but it’s going to be exciting to see what Asante Samuel Jr. is capable of providing for this Steelers team on the other side of Joey Porter Jr. I don’t think even as well as James has James Pierre has played this year, I don’t think it’s that much of a decline going from Pierre to Asante Samuel Jr. who I still believe is a starting level player. And we did get to see Asante in a in a you know starting role for a half a couple weeks ago against the Buffalo Bills when James went down um with a concussion midway through the game against Buffalo. And Asante looked fine. He had a couple nice tackles. Now, the Bills were mostly running the football at that point in the game because uh they had the lead um for pretty much the entire second half. And Zante, you know, didn’t really get to show off his coverage chops as much. He’ll have more of an opportunity to do that this week. Even though I do expect another runheavy game plan uh from the Steelers opponent this week, the Miami Dolphins, whose bread and butter is really Devon Achan and uh and their run game. And speaking of Devon Achan, he will be ready to go. he will play on Monday according to Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel. Um there was some indication that maybe Han might have a chance to not play because he did sit out the second half versus the New York Jets last week with a rib injury, but he is going to fight through that this week. Um so expect the Steelers run defenders this week um to really be attacking the midsection of Devon Achant. not necessarily trying to uh reinjure him or anything like that, but to make him uncomfortable, I think is probably the right way to put that. you know, if there’s somebody coming in with a rib injury at the running back position, somebody that’s honestly not the biggest guy in the world either, you know, I do think, you know, the directive is going to be, you know, make him uncomfortable, hit him, uh, you know, literally where it hurts and, uh, you know, see how much punishment he can take on Monday night, especially with the with the with the elements expected to be anywhere between five and like 15 degrees on Monday night. It’s going to be a cold one in Pittsburgh, so definitely something to keep your eye on there. And I’m certainly hoping Asante Samuel Jr. can play some good ball for this defense on Monday night. And obviously we hope James Pierre can get back to us as soon as he can because he’s been awesome for this Steelers defense this season. Then we got some uh injury updates here for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They did practice at Acer Stadium today. Apparently the the fields the practice fields at uh UPMC um are completely frozen over. That’s why they’ve been practicing indoors. Um, and of course the Acureer uh grass is is is perfectly good and ready to play on. So that’s where they practice today. Multiple uh players that either had the leaf practice early yesterday or did not practice at all yesterday returned to action today. Calvin Austin III was dealing with a calf injury. Uh he was limited in practice yesterday with that calf injury. He returned to practice today. Uh then also a whole slate of defensive lineman mispractice yesterday. um which included Cam Hayward, Keano Benson, Derek Harmon, YA Black. I mean, pretty much your entire starting rotation at defensive tackle, missed practice on Friday, but they were all in attendance for practice today and they were all practicing. It was good to see Derek Carman back out there uh practicing with his with his boys. And then um you know, I think that if the Steelers felt like a number of these players would not be able to go uh for Monday, they probably would have brought somebody in by now. So, the fact that, you know, they haven’t brought anybody in in free agency on the interior of the defensive line, mixed with the fact that you do have Hayward, Benson, Harmon, and Black all returning to practice today. It’s a good sign that, you know, a good portion of those guys are going to be able to play. Now, maybe one or maybe two of them are unable to go, but clearly the Steelers feel good enough about their depth um to go into this week’s game with the number of guys that they have. So, just keep your eye on that. Um, tomorrow we’ll get you guys an update on the injury report when it officially drops. See who officially is out, who officially is questionable, and who officially is ready to go. Um, definitely going to get some very intriguing uh answers tomorrow that is going to affect, you know, the dynamic of this ball game for sure. So, make sure you guys uh tune in tomorrow. Uh but now to finish up today’s show guys, I do want to talk about a story that we got uh regarding the Steelers draft strategy in 2026, which is that Lenor Sers uh South Carolina quarterback that very likely would have been a first round pick if he would have came out of in the NFL draft this year is deciding to return to South Carolina for another season of college football. Now, um you know, I think that Sellers returning to college football, especially because he still has two years left of eligibility, makes some sense. uh because you know he’s not ready to play uh in the in the National Football League at this point. Like if he were to if he were to declare like the team that would be drafting him should have a plan for him not to play in year one and for him to learn behind a veteran. And honestly, the Steelers would have made a lot of sense for that. You know, uh next year is Cam Hayward’s final year of his career uh if he decides to return for the 2026 season. And um you know, the Steelers are very likely going to have a veteran be their week one starter, even if they draft a quarterback in round one of the NFL draft next year. And it’s possible Aaron Rogers could return as this team starting quarterback next year. If you would have brought in Lenora Sers to learn from Aaron Rodgers for a year, that would have been a really, really good setup for the Pittsburgh Steelers in my opinion. But that’s obviously no longer a possibility. And honestly, I don’t know if Sers is making the right decision going back to South Carolina. I mean, uh, that offense and, you know, that kind of system, that O line did him no favors this year. And I think I would have loved to see him go to a better organization, a better program, uh, with a better O line, with a better scheme, a better play caller, but, you know, he is super super uh, you know, loyal to the Bieber family. Um, you know, that entire coaching staff, that or that that entire program. So, I mean, good for him for being loyal and all that different stuff, but man, I just don’t know if that’s the right decision for his development in terms of his future being a professional quarterback, but um that obviously means one less person, one less potential first round quarterback. Um that’s available now for the Pittsburgh Steelers to potentially draft in round one next year. And with another guy taken off the board here, um that obviously increases um the scarcity of first round caliber quarterbacks. I mean, right now, I would say maybe we get three. Um, we like we’re talking about Fernando Mendoza, Dante Moore, and Tai Simpson. And that’s even, you know, if all three of those guys come out, Dante Moore and Tai Simpson. Um, you know, there’s certain rumblings that both of those guys could be returning to college. But honestly, I do think Mo and Simpson probably come out. Simpson maybe if if he really stinks it up in the college football playoffs the way that he did in the SEC championship game. I guess it’s possible he could return for his senior year at Alabama. But you know I think for sure Dante Moore and Fernando Mendoza will be coming out and you know the the more the Steelers win games and if they make the playoffs this year they’re not going to be drafting in the teens, they’re not going to be drafting, you know, borderline top 10 this year. They’re going to be drafting in the 20s again. and the chances of them trading up for one of these top quarterbacks with as much, you know, quarterback need as there is in the National Football League heading into this off seasonason. It’s just seeming more and more likely that Pittsburgh is not going to have a chance to draft a legit round one quarterback this year. And that likely means the Steelers will go and get another veteran quarterback next off seasonason. Whether that’s bringing back Aaron Rodgers, whether that’s um you know going out and trading for a guy like Kyler Murray, whether that’s bringing in a guy like Daniel Jones or something along those lines. All those things are possibilities at this point. Um and you know that could mean that we have a veteran at QB1 for another season here, Mason Rudolph as QB2 or maybe Will Howard as QB2. Um, and Will Howard is kind of the quote unquote potential long-term option for this team heading into the 2026 season. Now, they could certainly draft a quarterback in the middle rounds as well. Um, you know, there’s some, uh, there’s some contingents of Steelers fans that want Jaden Mayava from USC, uh, who’s expected to be more of a day two draft pick. Uh, Darien Mensah, if he decides to come out, would be interesting. Brendan Sorsby, if he comes out, would be interesting. Um, you know, there’s some very interesting day two and day three. um you know, QB draft prospects that the Steelers, I’m guessing, will probably take at least one of them with the 12 draft picks that they have in this year’s uh in this year’s NFL draft. But, you know, the more uh and the further along we get here, the less and less likely it appears that the Steelers are set up to draft a quarterback in round one of the 2026 NFL draft. Now, still anything is possible. the Steelers could still like theoretically lose out or lose three of their final four and put themselves in position to draft in the teens and then maybe you could put together um you know a trade package to to try and get Mendoza or Dante Moore or Tai Simpson. But I would say the the significant um likelihood at this point is that the Steelers will have a veteran quarterback as their starter again next year. Whether that’s Aaron Rogers, whether they luck out and somehow find a way to trade for Matthew Stafford, whether that’s Kyler Murray, which is probably more of a realistic trade option, um Daniel Jones maybe, uh M. Jones, maybe. I mean, there’s just there’s I would say there’s limited established starting options. Gino Smith, I would say, is probably another one that they might consider. Um, you know, and I know a lot of fans are probably not going to love that. You know, they would probably rather go with Will Howard as the starting quarterback than a lot of those options. So, you know, I guess we’ll we’re just going to have to see what happens. But I’m just going to tell you guys right now. Um, with next year being Cam Hayward’s final year of his career, uh, with it potentially being Mike Tomlin’s final year on his contract, um, you know, it’s there’s going to be a heavy push to try one more time to go with a veteran quarterback, push for a win now season, see if they can put something together before potentially drafting a quarterback in a in what, you know, I in what should be a pretty good quarterback class in 2027. Now, obviously, we said going into this year it was going to be a good quarterback class and then like all the top guys outside of Mendoza have really flamed out from in terms of the preseason round one projected guys. So, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens for sure when it comes to the quarterback side of things for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Uh I think the best case scenario is you find a way to trade for Matthew Stafford and you know you you’re able to go on one last run to try and get Cam Hayward a ring. um and you know, you kind of move forward and try and get a quarterback in 2027 if you’re going to go the veteran route, but I guess we’ll just have to see what this team does in the weeks and months to come. All right, so we appreciate all of your guys’ support here on Steelers Talk, guys. Again, we’re going to be going live for the Monday Night Football game on Monday night starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. We’re going to get more content, probably two videos out to you guys tomorrow on NFL Sunday, including an update on the injury report heading into Monday night, as well as um you know, any update on the AF on the state of the AFC North. Hopefully, the Baltimore Ravens take a big L tomorrow on the road in Cincinnati to Joe Burrow and the Bengals. Uh that would be fantastic. And if that happens, of course, uh that puts a lot of pressure on the Steelers to win this week because they would have put themselves in great position. Um up two games in the division with just three games left to go. It would be a huge massive advantage. Um where the Steelers would just have to win two of their final three games in order to lock up the division. Um so really do appreciate all of your guys’ support. We’ll see you guys later. Until next time, here we go, Steelers.

Pittsburgh Steelers news on Saturday, December 13th, dives into the latest Steelers injury updates on key players such as James Pierre, Derrick Harmon, Cam Heywrad, Keeanu Benton, Yahya Black, Calvin Austin III, and more as the Black and Gold prepare to take on the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football in Week 15 of the 2025 NFL season. On today’s show, Steelers Talk host and Chat Sports NFL Analyst Jack Sperry comes to you from his home to discuss the latest Steelers news updates you should be made aware of, including his thoughts on Asante Samuel Jr. getting his first start as a Steeler now that James Pierre is slated to miss this week’s game with a calf injury, as well as projected first round quarterback LaNorris Sellers deciding to go back to school next year, leaving Pittsburgh with one less option to consider in Round 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft.

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