Steel City Underground presents post-game takeaways following each 2025 NFL preseason game that focuses on how the Pittsburgh Steelers performed, key statistics, and more!<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, on the road, the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to close out the 2025 NFL preseason with a 19-10 win over the Carolina Panthers. While the game featured a few more starters than the previous two games, Pittsburgh opted to give higher snap counts to guys who needed the on-field experience and repetitions versus showing their full potential ahead of the regular season.<\/p>\n
While the game wasn\u2019t explosively exciting, both teams drawing a number of early penalties, there were some sparks and quite a few takeaways to look at in more depth.<\/p>\n
Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n Thompson won\u2019t pass Rudolph on depth chart<\/p>\n While Mason Rudolph<\/a> had a less than stellar outing against the Panthers (6\/8 passing for 36 yards, 1 interception) compared to Skylar Thompson<\/a> (11\/13 passing for 152 yards, 1 touchdown), the Steelers know what they have in the more-experienced Rudolph. Has Thompson showed poise under pressure, been mobile, found some smart targets to hit? Yes. In fact, Thompson has been something of a surprise in how he has performed.<\/p>\n While fans may be clamoring for Thompson behind Aaron Rodgers<\/a> over Rudolph, let\u2019s take a step back and remember that had Will Howard<\/a> not injured his throwing hand during training camp, he likely would have had the reps Thompson was given, or more, and Logan Woodside<\/a> might have seen little to no time on the field.<\/p>\n Ahead of the 53-man cutdown this upcoming Tuesday, the Steelers will need to make a determination about Howard\u2019s progress injury-wise. Expectations are that the team will keep just three QBs rostered, and unless Howard is physically unable to perform, Thompson and Woodside are on the cutting block.<\/p>\n Thompson\u2019s play very well could land him a spot with another NFL team, unless the Steelers opt to stash him on a coveted practice squad position. The quarterback needed to show more than Rudolph this preseason for that reason: future potential, likely elsewhere.<\/p>\n Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n Sloppy play for a preseason finale<\/p>\n It can\u2019t be blamed on poor officiating; the Steelers were caught-up in the midst of a golden flag fest of their own making, especially early in the game. False starts, blocks in the back, holding\u2026 those are fundamental things that should have been cleaned up by this point. Jalen Ramsey<\/a>\u2018s extra slam of a ball carrier he had stopped in the backfield might get some fans fired up over his famed nasty on-field disposition, but in a regular season game would be a severe blow when penalized.<\/p>\n Add in an interception, a near-fumble by Jaylen Warren<\/a>, a blown assignment that allowed an easy Panthers touchdown, and a lot of arm-tackling whiffs, and you get this:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to get a win\u2026 There\u2019s a lot of things that (we) don\u2019t like, to be quite honest with you. I thought we were highly penalized. We turned the ball over there early. The tackling was shaky at best at times. I think they had 100 yards rushing at the half and that\u2019s just kind of indicative of how poor the tackling was at times\u2026 we\u2019ve got some things to work on\u2026\u201d \u2013 head coach Mike Tomlin<\/p>\n Yes, it was a win. Points on the scoreboard. A moral victory. Even Coach Tomlin explained that victories tend to right some of the wrongs. Let\u2019s hope that before the regular season kicks off those things are put behind this team.<\/p>\n Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n Earning positions<\/p>\n The last preseason game is considered to be a final opportunity for many players to make a statement about why the deserve a roster spot. \u201cI always do a history of the series for this game to illustrate to the guys how important this opportunity is,\u201d Tomlin told Bob Labriola<\/a> before the game. There have been players in the past who have shown enough during the preseason to edge out someone who might have looked to be a shoe-in.<\/p>\n Rookie defensive lineman Yahya Black<\/a> has certainly not disappointed in stepping up this preseason. He logged the first Steelers sack of the preseason in this game and followed it up with another. He showed, in the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, that his bull-rush is deadly and that he has the ability to push offensive linemen backwards, into the quarterback\u2019s face if necessary.<\/p>\n At receiver, Lance McCutcheon<\/a> got an opportunity to shine in this game due to a Brandon Johnson<\/a> injury. McCutcheon caught 3 passes for 52 yards, including a 24-yard touchdown. Both receivers are competing with Scotty Miller<\/a>, Ben Skowronek<\/a>, Ke\u2019Shawn Williams, and Robert Woods<\/a> to land a spot with D.K. Metcalf<\/a>, Calvin Austin<\/a>, and Roman Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Steelers aren\u2019t in the habit of just handing positions away, so film from this game alongside the Jacksonville and Tampa Bay reels will help uncover who showed they\u2019ve earned positions and who hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always some difficult decisions and conversations, and really, I\u2019ve learned not to speculate until you get out of this stadium,\u201d Tomlin answered when asked about how hard it is to get down to 53 players. \u201cI\u2019ve learned to wait, to live in the moment, and to make all analysis and decisions on the other side of this game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steel City Underground presents post-game takeaways following each 2025 NFL preseason game that focuses on how the Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[20280,54209,260,7,1815,1736,16770,560,1255,6,520,57,2360,3917,426,2085],"class_list":{"0":"post-308853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-2025-pittsburgh-steelers","9":"tag-2025-steelers-preseason","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jalen-ramsey","13":"tag-jaylen-warren","14":"tag-lance-mccutcheon","15":"tag-mason-rudolph","16":"tag-mike-tomlin","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-pittsburgh","19":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","20":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","21":"tag-skylar-thompson","22":"tag-steelers","23":"tag-yahya-black"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115073031327372672","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308853","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=308853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}