Winners and losers from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 28-9 win over the Green Bay Packers in Thursday night’s preseason opener.

WINNERS
CB Asante Samuel Jr.

Call him clamps Samuel. His performance Thursday night mirrored his strong play throughout the summer. Samuel broke up two passes, including a slot fade on third down. He got his head around and made the play on the football.

Samuel is shaping up to be not just excellent depth, but a ball-skills cornerback who needs to have some sort of sub-package role to open up the season. Fully healthy, he’s taken advantage of Joey Porter Jr.’s back injury/contract holdout.

WR Germie Bernard

Bernard hasn’t had an inspiring training camp. But some guys are just gamers, and he came alive once he stepped inside a stadium. Bernard showed a good feel in zone coverage, flashed reliable hands, and displayed his strength with multiple broken tackles. He created a ton of YAC on this reception from QB Mason Rudolph.

An impressive first time through for Bernard, who generated a lot more buzz tonight than he had the first two weeks.

QB Will Howard

Gotta give it up for Howard. His first in-stadium action since January 2025 while at Ohio State, it took until midway through the second quarter for Howard to take the field. His first pass was a first down completion on a second-read bootleg to WR Brandon Smith.

It was the two-minute drill where Howard most shined. He marched Pittsburgh downfield with touch and accuracy on layered throws. He came inches away from his first passing touchdown to close out the half, climbing into the pocket to connect with TE Robert Tonyan. It was initially called a touchdown but ruled short after a review.

Howard met the key moments. A fourth down completion to WR Ben Skowronek. A two-minute score, reflecting what the Steelers practice to close out most camp practices. Good stuff.

Howard came out for the second half and found less success with a risky third down throw. Still, the good outweighed the bad and it was a positive debut.

RB Lew Nichols

Nichols continues his hard-charging brand of football. He pushes the pile forward and gets yards after contact, including keeping his legs going on a key fourth down conversion.

He had a touchdown run called back on a Troy Fautanu hold. Nichols may have been in the wrong for bouncing it wide on a designed inside run, that’s why Fautanu held, but he ran well overall. He also played over Kaleb Johnson. Don’t count Nichols out from making the 53-man roster.

WR Ben Skowronek & TE Robert Tonyan

Will Howard made the throws, but Skowronek and Tonyan made key catches. Skowronek had an early third down conversion from Mason Rudolph followed by reaching out to bring in Howard’s fourth down throw.

Skowronek is going to make the roster for his special teams value. Tonyan keeps working closer toward securing a spot on the 53-man roster.

Later in the two-minute drill, Tonyan got himself open and available.

NTs Yahya Black & Gabiel Rubio

On first watch, Black and Rubio played solid run defense up front. On one Packers run, Black beat his block to force the Green Bay runner to jump to his right. Rubio two-gapped to take away the inside lane, key the runner wide, and get off the block to make the stop. In the second half, Rubio dropped into coverage and made a downfield tackle.

For what it’s worth, Black took the first nose tackle snap in Pittsburgh’s 3-4 with Derrick Harmon at LDE and Keeanu Benton at RDE. We’ll need to chart the game and watch the All-22 to truly evaluate but on live watch, both performances looked promising.

WR/RET Kaden Wetjen

Even before you think about his long catch and run on QB Drew Allar’s first pass, Wetjen flashed the talent got him drafted as college football’s top return man. Wetjen broke multiple tackles on his combined kick and punt returns. If a returner can make even one man miss with good blocking elsewhere, there’s a chance for a big runback. Unfortunately, Wetjen simply didn’t get much in the form of a true lane.

He also forced a touchback with a fake fair catch, leading the Packers’ coverage team to him instead of the ball that bounced behind them all. The traits were there, and that’s what I was watching for in the first true chance to evaluate a returner like Wetjen.

On offense, Wetjen made a “wow” play by taking a relatively short completion from Allar and turning on the jets. A 74-yard completion that came yards away from scoring.

In the fourth quarter, Wetjen scored his first touchdown to cap a long Allar-led drive in

Wetjen showed every reason why the team took him as early as the fourth round. There’s a long way to go but a really good outing in small and big ways.

QB Drew Allar

Allar followed Howard’s act with similar shine. His first completion was nearly a touchdown, a 74 yard catch and run to Wetjen. Wetjen did much of the work, but it was an on-time and accurate ball from Allar.

Allar finished the drive with a read/option keeper for the score.

His next drive peppered on-time and on-target completions to WR Max Hurleman before finishing things with a sprint left touchdown pass to Wetjen.

He finished the game with a touchdown pass to rookie FB Riley Nowakowski, who made a strong one-handed snag in the end zone.

The big plays pop, and Allar’s timing and accuracy in the short and intermediate game was also impressive and begins answering one of the biggest concerns from his college tape. A strong start for him and Howard.

CB Daylen Everette

Everette’s night wasn’t as obviously loud as others, but he held his own. He filled and fit the run and was competitive in coverage. Like the defensive linemen, we’ll need a closer examination with the All-22, but I liked what I saw from Everette throughout the night. The rookie class was really impressive.

EDGE Jamin Davis

Davis has looked miscast as an outside linebacker but defended the boot game well tonight. In the first half, he made a tackle in the flat and took away what was designed to be a wide-open option. In the fourth quarter, he picked up a sack. He finished the game with two of them, splitting a late sack with a fired-up Kyler Baugh.

Davis isn’t on track to make the 53-man roster but those were positive plays. Similar can be said for DL Anthony Goodlow, who also showed pass-rush juice.

LOSERS
Discipline & Penalties

Preseason games are rarely crisp. But as we warned Wednesday, the Steelers were ripe for an especially sloppy game. Pittsburgh finished the game with 11 penalties for 134 yards. During a mid-game interview, even Art Rooney II sounded frustrated by the number of mistakes. Rightfully so.

They came on all sides. False starts by Troy Fautanu. A late hit by ILB Cole Holcomb. Multiple special teams penalties, including a dumb unnecessary roughness call on WR Ben Skowronek.

Pittsburgh has a lot of work to do to get things cleaned up. An ugly camp in that regard carried right over into Acrisure Stadium.

RB Kaleb Johnson

The writing might be on the wall. Johnson didn’t log a single offensive snap in the first half even with Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle sitting out. Johnson didn’t carry the ball until there was a little more than 4 minutes left in the third quarter. When he touched the ball, yards didn’t follow. He had just two carries for 3 yards.

Eli Heidenreich closed the game out carries-wise despite barely practicing the past week due to a minor injury.

Even with a clean slate, Johnson has clearly lost ground and doesn’t look like a fit in Mike McCarthy’s scheme. Something big may have to happen for him to make the 53. Odds are higher he’s traded, or outright cut, later this month.

OT Troy Fautanu

Fautanu didn’t look his best in this one, allowing some pressure off the edge and picking up penalties. There’s some context that minimizes that, Mason Rudolph not climbing the pocket one play, Lew Nichols bouncing a run wide on another, but Fautanu looks like he’s still knocking off rust flipping back to left tackle after shifting to right tackle after being drafted.

I’m not as harsh on him as others will be, but there will need to be better days ahead.