{"id":274979,"date":"2025-08-09T19:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/274979\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T19:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:01:11","slug":"steelers-rookie-jack-sawyer-looks-to-make-mark-in-nfl-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/274979\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Rookie Jack Sawyer Looks to Make Mark in NFL Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Jack Sawyer at training camp on Aug. 3, 2025. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

UNITY TWP, Pa. \u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers rookie outside linebacker Jack Sawyer is chomping at the bit to play in his first preseason game on Saturday night against the Jacksonville jaguars.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper excited. It\u2019s going to be pretty cool to put the pads on and get out in the stadium as the first time as a Steeler. We\u2019re all really anxious about it, looking forward to it and preparing as much as we can,\u201d Sawyer said at St. Vincent College on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Sawyer has turned heads at training camp, especially in run defense. He\u2019ll have his first chance to showcase his skill sets on Saturday night in Jacksonville. <\/p>\n

Sawyer, who was a fourth-round selection by the Steelers out of Ohio State in the 2025 NFL Draft, acknowledged the big adjustments required from the college level to the pros.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just taking the steps to learn how we do things here. Trying to learn as much as I can from T.J. and those guys. Nick Herbig has been great, Alex Highsmith,\u201d Sawyer said. \u201cThey\u2019ve all been super good with us young guys. Helping us elevate our growth and continuing to take steps in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Sawyer, he has the league\u2019s best pass rusher as a teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome. No better guy you want to learn from. He\u2019s been great. Good guy off the field, too,\u201d Sawyer said of T.J. Watt. \u201cTo be able to learn from him and see how he attacks every day, whether it\u2019s on the field or off the field in recovery. It\u2019s been great for me already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Jack Sawyer in a backs on backers drill at training camp on July 30, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n

Watt is expected to move around more this year, as teams figured out how to neutralize the All-Pro edge rusher last season when he predominately rushed from the left side.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think we are all trying to be as versatile as we can be. So playing both sides of the ball so teams can\u2019t game plan for the best player in the league, definitely will help him,\u201d Sawyer said. \u201cAnd obviously helps us out too to get a chance to rush from a different side and feel the game from both sides. I think it\u2019s beneficial to everybody.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sawyer rushed on both sides at Ohio State, but played mostly on the left side in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, they are the same,\u201d Sawyer said about doing pass-rush moves on either side. \u201cIt\u2019s just working on the opposite side, you know, you\u2019re kind of twisting and turning on the other side of your body. It\u2019s something you have to get used to in practice but it\u2019s been going good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sawyer is one of the six players on Derrick Bell of Steelers Now\u2019s list<\/a> to watch on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

The Steelers\u2019 collection of edge rushers is what dreams are made of from a defensive coordinator\u2019s perspective. With the top three guys in street clothes, Jack Sawyer <\/a>should see significant playing time throughout the preseason,\u201d Bell wrote. \u201cThere\u2019ve been encouraging moments already as a run defender, holding the point of attack and bullying tight ends en route to the backfield. If he proves that he has the springs to threaten tackles off the edge as a rusher, his ceiling is greater than just a trustworthy depth piece. It\u2019ll be fascinating to see what his pass rush plan looks like in his first action as a pro.\u201d<\/p>\n

To say the least, all eyes will be on Sawyer in his NFL debut against Jacksonville. <\/p>\n

Alan Saunders provided reporting from St. Vincent College.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Jack Sawyer<\/a> Jacksonville jaguars.<\/a> Ohio State Buckeyes<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Jack Sawyer at training camp on Aug. 3, 2025. — Ed Thompson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,295,125,6,69,520,57,2360,426,2395],"class_list":{"0":"post-274979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jack-sawyer","10":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-steelers","17":"tag-steelers-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274979","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=274979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}