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<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Cole Holcomb had a standout performance in Saturday night\u2019s preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He recorded four tackles, three of which were solos.<\/p>\n
Holcomb feels better than ever right now after sitting out all of last year due to a devastating knee injury suffered in November of 2023.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYeah, I mean, for me personally, It felt good. It finally felt \u2026 got that first game outta the way, so kind of could just get back to like that normalcy of playing again,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cLast week was a big moment, so my eyes were a little all over the place in the beginning of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this week I felt like everything calmed down. I was able to just kind of get back to like, doing my thing and doing what I do.<\/p>\n
For Holcomb, the main thing is confidence. He has his swagger back.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously everybody knows I missed last season. I didn\u2019t play a game. So for me, I need to go out there and prove to everybody in the entire NFL that I can still play,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cThat I\u2019m back. I\u2019m just as good as I was before the injury. I\u2019ve got my confidence back. I feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker Cole Holcomb at training camp on July 25, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has been impressed with what he\u2019s seen from Holcomb.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI thought on the surface it was solid,\u201d Tomlin said. \u201cI don\u2019t have anything other than that from a reactionary standpoint. I certainly will next time we come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holcomb has come a long way since suffering a serious knee injury<\/a> midway through the 2023 season. He saw his first NFL action since suffering the injury last weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and he played well.<\/p>\n That has earned him the attention<\/a> and respect of his teammates, including long-time Steelers team captain Cameron Heyward.<\/p>\n \u201cCole flew around. To think about the injury he sustained just a year ago, and to watch him battle back and put in the work. Most guys would\u2019ve retired by now, to be honest,\u201d Heyward said<\/a> on the latest episode of Not Just Football with Cam Heyward. \u201cTo see Cole out there, he looks better than ever. He\u2019s feeling more confident, more comfortable, and he\u2019s done it at a high level before.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a long road to recovery for Holcomb, but he was determined to not let his injury be the end of his NFL career.<\/p>\n In fact, Holcomb was playing some of the best football of his career before he went down,\u00a0recording<\/a>\u00a054 tackles, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and two passes defensed in eight games with the Steelers.<\/p>\n That, unfortunately, came to a halt in that Thursday Night Football game during the 2023 season. However, Holcomb is now focused on returning as the same, if not better, impactful player.<\/p>\n \u201cBeen working hard to come back, and it\u2019s been a long road,\u201d\u00a0Holcomb said<\/a>. \u201cI felt like I\u2019m picking up where I left off.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Aaron Becker contributed to this story.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Steelers Now<\/a>: Cole Holcomb: \u2018I\u2019ve Got My Confidence Back\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Cole Holcomb had a standout performance in Saturday night\u2019s preseason game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,4034,22693,9676,7,125,3672,6,57,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-296673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-cameron-heyward","10":"tag-cole-holcomb","11":"tag-ed-thompson","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","14":"tag-knee-injury","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","17":"tag-tampa-bay","18":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","19":"tag-tampabay","20":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115046941146757492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296673","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=296673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}