{"id":255133,"date":"2025-08-02T05:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/255133\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T05:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:25:09","slug":"steelers-secondary-attacks-in-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/255133\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Secondary Attacks in Waves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers Analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey at practice on Aug. 1, 2025. — Alan Saunders \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

UNITY TWP., Pa. \u2014 The Pittsburgh Steelers look like they have a pretty good secondary ahead of the 2025 season. <\/p>\n

That should be the case, with the team trading for former All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey right before the start of the season, and adding him to Darius Slay, Joey Porter Jr. and DeShon Elliott, who all had strong seasons in 2024.<\/p>\n

But just how good? That will play out over the course of the season, but if the early returns are any indication \u2014 look out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the guys at the top of the depth chart, either. Brandin Echols and Cory Trice have been in an intense battle for the No. 4 cornerback spot, and both have played very well throughout training camp.<\/p>\n

When Trice and Porter were injured on Friday, Beanie Bishop stepped up to the first team and played well, and James Pierre found himself on the second squad, making an interception of Mason Rudolph in the end zone to secure victory for the defense in the two-minute drill.<\/p>\n

BACKS ON BACKERS DOESN\u2019T DISAPPOINT<\/p>\n

By Derrick Bell<\/p>\n

The backs-on-backers drill at Steelers training camp is the most electrifying ten minutes that you\u2019ll ever witness during a practice setting. With the competitive juices overflowing, this is where trash talk reigns supreme and emotions run amok. This is a 1v1 setting where the defensive players own the natural advantage as the aggressor, so when a tight end starts to steal the show in pass protection, it\u2019s worth getting excited about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first rep of the night came against T.J. Watt, where the highest-paid non-QB was able to get underneath his pads and generate some initial knockbacken route to the backfield. After that, the Georgia product was lights out. The coaching staff threw him challenge after challenge, and he kept standing tall until head coach Mike Tomlin ran out of challengers to throw his direction.<\/p>\n

His matchups versus Jack Sawyer and DeMarvin Leal were utterly dominant, with him anchoring down and giving up no ground whatsoever. Alex Highsmith tried to hit him with his patented inside spin move; Washington remained balanced and was able to mirror him effortlessly, latch on, and drive him backwards on contact. Advantage to the dancing bear wearing #80.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was hardly a surprise to his teammates, with one of them barking out \u201cnot bad for an offensive tackle\u201d in his direction after his grand finale. His response? \u201cBetter pay me like one.\u201d While a position switch isn\u2019t in the cards, the Steelers brain trust should feel pretty giddy about having a physical specimen this rare because having a tight end this proficient in pass blocking is very rare. Even if the box score production isn\u2019t gaudy, Washington\u2019s blocking acumen is going to make him a very rich man so long as he stays healthy. <\/p>\n

Arguably the player with the most to prove in this drill was rookie tailback Kaleb Johnson, who struggled during his first exposure to this setting earlier this week. That\u2019s not too surprising considering Iowa\u2019s run-first ecosystem only tasked him with staying in pass protection for all of 60 reps throughout his collegiate career.<\/p>\n

Veteran backer Malik Harrison got after him early, catching the youngster lunging before swooping around him for consecutive quick wins. After a rough start and a quick chat from running backs coach Eddie Faulkner, Pittsburgh\u2019s third-round pick found his swagger. The final act of the trilogy resulted in a decisive win with him squaring up his adversary, who was trying to bull rush him backwards. That was a step in the right direction for sure, but Tomlin wasn\u2019t satisfied, and he elected to bring Mark Robinson, a noted thumper, to the party.<\/p>\n

The final couple reps showed the necessary physicality that it takes to survive in this league, with his performance drawing praise from his teammates and respect from veteran defenders alike. Hopefully, that will also have a positive effect on his confidence. Johnson\u2019s ability to tote the rock in an outside zone system makes him a seamless fit for Arthur Smith\u2019s offense. But in order for those skills to be put on display to their fullest potential, he\u2019ll need to be trusted to keep the quarterback upright.<\/p>\n

Also of note, Payton Wilson looks and sounds like a completely different player from this time a year ago. In his two reps, he ran right through the chest of Kenneth Gainwell, and he was sure to let him know about it after the play, too. There are some lofty expectations out there for this Steelers defense, and rightfully so, but his development is key for this unit reaching their apex. He\u2019s always been extremely gifted, but if the processing speed starts catching up with his physical abilities, watch out. If you\u2019re looking for standouts under the lights, he certainly fell into that category tonight.<\/p>\n

SEVEN SHOTS<\/p>\n

The defense won seven shots by a 4-3 margin.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 Aaron Rodgers threw left to the corner of the end zone, but DK Metcalf slipped and Darius Slay swatted the ball away.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 Rodgers handed off up the middle to Kaleb Johnson, where he was stood up by Derrick Harmon and Payton Wilson.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 Rodgers looked to the left corner of the end zone again, this time for Pat Freiermuth, but Slay was again there to wrestle the ball away from, Freiermuth as he came down near the end line. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 Mason Rudolph entered the game and threw to the right corner for Scotty Miller, but Juan Thornhill forced him out of bounds.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 Rudolph handed to Johnson, who ran around the right end past Trice and Nick Herbig into the end zone.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 Will Howard fired a quick-hitter off to the right for running back Kenneth Gainwell, who had been lined up in the slot.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 Howard rolled right on the final rep, finding Max Hurleman in front of Pierre.<\/p>\n

INJURY UPDATES<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 CB Joey Porter Jr. did not practice and is day-to-day with a hand injury. Jalen Ramsey moved to outside cornerback, Beanie Bishop was the first-team Nickel and Donte Kent was the second-team Nickel.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 CB Cory Trice suffered a hamstring injury and left practice. He was replaced in the second-team defense by James Pierre.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 TE DJ Thomas-Jones<\/a> (left calf\/ankle), DT Dean Lowry (knee) and DT Esezi Otomewo (right knee) all did not practice.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8\u00a0LG Isaac Seumalo took only individual reps as he works back from his undisclosed injury. Spencer Anderson started.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc8 LT Broderick Jones took one period of team reps before giving way to Calvin Anderson and Dylan Cook. Anderson was injured late in practice and is being evaluated.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers Training Camp<\/a> top<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers Analysis Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey at practice on Aug. 1, 2025. — Alan Saunders \/ Steelers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2360,426,26586,3444],"class_list":{"0":"post-255133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","13":"tag-steelers","14":"tag-steelers-training-camp","15":"tag-top"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}