Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 37 - Number 1 i Steelers Digest

It’s a given. Every. Single. Time. Comparable to parents’ response when asked about their newborn. In the immediate aftermath of bringing a new draft class into the world, NFL general managers and coaches routinely sit behind microphones and they smile and gush when asked about the men who became the fruits of their three days of picking. Listen closely, and you might hear the strains of “Home On The Range” as background music. “Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word, “And the skies are not cloudy all day.” General Manager Omar Khan and Coach Mike Tomlin uttered no discouraging words when they met the media inside the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on April 27 after the Steelers finished picking/adding 7 players over the course of six rounds of the 2024…

Exactly 29 years and three days after drafting Mark Bruener with the 27th pick of the first round, the Steelers went back to the University of Washington for a second Huskies first-rounder – offensive tackle Troy Fautanu. Bruener, in fact, scouted Fautanu for the Steelers. “He’s a Steelers-type player,” said Bruener. “His toughness is something that really stands out. His personality is one that will fit into our building appropriately. We were very lucky to get him.” If anyone knows “a Steelers-type player,” it’s Bruener. Not only did the tight end make 137 catches for 1,197 yards and 16 touchdowns in his eight seasons with the team, his 57 percent catch rate was better than highly drafted Steelers wide receivers Santonio Holmes, Charles Johnson, Plaxico Burress, and, of course, Limas…

Making sacrifices. It’s something you often have to do in order to get where you want to be in life, yet so many don’t really want to go that extra mile to get to where they want to be. Roman Wilson is not one of those people. Not even by a long shot. The Steelers third round draft pick went the extra mile and then some when he was in high school to help make his dream a reality. Wilson grew up in Hawaii, where most of the state is not a hotbed for high school football, with one exception. St. Louis School. It’s a school that produced current and former Steelers, including Chris Fuamatu Ma’afala, Tyson Alualu, and Nate and Nick Herbig, as well as other NFL players like…

2023 SEASON Honorable mention All-Big Ten (coaches and media) … Academic All-Big Ten … Hayden Fry “Extra Heartbeat” Award, defense … One of nine seniors named to Player Council … Recorded a career-high 10 tackles (five solo), including a career-high 2.5 tackles for a loss and a career-high 2 sacks in 20-14 win over Purdue … Collected three tackles (two solo), including 1 sack vs. Michigan. 2022 SEASON Academic All-Big Ten … Posted season-high 8 tackles (six solo), with one tackle for loss vs. Iowa State … Matched season-high with 8 tackles vs. Illinois. 2021 SEASON Dean’s List student (2021 spring) … Posted a season-high 7 tackles vs. fourth-ranked Penn State … Had 5 tackles, including 1.5 for loss and a sack in 20-17 Citrus Bowl loss vs. 22nd-ranked Kentucky.…

When Bill Cowher was coaching the Steelers, it was never the Hall of Famer’s style to heap praise on rookies, especially before they even took the field. But in his current role as an analyst on the NFL on CBS, the same doesn’t always apply. And that is exactly the case when it comes to Steelers third round pick Payton Wilson, the linebacker from Cowher’s alma mater, North Carolina State. Cowher has naturally followed Wilson’s career by default while watching the Wolfpack, meeting him personally when he went to games over the last few years. And he likes what he saw in person and while watching from the comfort of home, especially the way Wilson has battled through multiple injuries in his college career. “His athletic ability speaks for itself,”…

CAREER Transferred from Ohio State and enrolled at Texas in January 2022 … 2022 First-Team Academic All-Big 12. 2023 SEASON Had 4 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and 1 pass breakup in a win at Alabama. 2022 SEASON Honorable Mention All-Big 12. OHIO STATE Played in 19 games during 2 seasons with the Buckeyes … 2021 Academic All-Big Ten, when he played in all 12 regular season games and tied for the team lead with 2 interceptions … Played in 7 games in 2020 as a true freshman … Was a part of Ohio State teams that won a Big Ten Championship, a Sugar Bowl Championship, and appeared in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. PERSONAL Played both wide receiver and cornerback at Little Elm High School … Rated…

I shoulda listened. For a couple years, my younger brother Dale Wolfley, a former standout lineman at WVU and broadcaster, had bent my ear about this kid Zach Frazier. He gushed a lot of superlatives, especially about Zach’s character and the Frazier clan, to go along with his physicality on tape. Sheesh, Dale was spot on. Full disclosure, I was really high on Jackson Powers-Johnson, the center from Oregon. But to say that I’ll “settle” for Zach Frazier is completely wrong. This young man is nobody’s “settled for” pick. His worth stands out on tape. I wish his tape came with sound effects. There would be more “BANG! ZOOM! KAPOW! than a 1960s era Adam West Batman TV show! (Which I loved BTW). Equally proficient at run or pass blocking,…

CAREER Associated Press FCS All-America First Team (2022, 2023) … MVFC Commissioner’s Academic Excellence Award (2019, 2020-21, 2021) … Team Captain (2021, 2022, 2023). 2023 SEASON Ran streak of consecutive starts to a school-record 57 games as he played the opening offensive snap at left guard in all 15 games … Earned Missouri Valley Football Conference Offensive Lineman of the Week as the Jackrabbits opened league play with a home win over North Dakota … Honored as team’s top offensive lineman four times during the 2023 campaign … Selected to play in East-West Shrine Bowl. 2022 SEASON Was a consensus All-America selection while playing left guard … Named a recipient of team’s Adam Timmerman Award as co-offensive most valuable player … Named team’s Offensive Lineman of the Week six times…

The City of Pittsburgh and Steelers Nation have been abuzz since the NFL and VisitPITTSBURGH announced on May 22 that the 2026 NFL Draft will be held in Pittsburgh. And on May 23, key players who helped to bring the Draft to Pittsburgh gathered for a press conference at Acrisure Stadium. Steelers President Art Rooney II was joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and VisitPITTSBURGH President/CEO Jerad Bachar to talk about the exciting time ahead. “We are excited about hosting the Draft for a lot of reasons,” said Rooney. “No. 1, we think that Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania really are where the roots of pro football began, even before there was an NFL. There was a team called the Allegheny Athletics…

The Steelers will put a couple of winning streaks on the line in the 2024 season when they host the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at Acrisure Stadium on Christmas Day in a 1 p.m. game. Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year and the NFL scheduled two stand-alone games to take place on that day that will be broadcast on Netflix. The Steelers are 1-0 on Wednesday, having beaten the Ravens in a game moved because of COVID-19 concerns in 2020. They’re also 2-0 on games played on Christmas Day. It’s all part of the Steelers’ 17-game schedule that was released by the NFL that also includes four other stand-alone games, all in prime time. For the Steelers, the schedule not only has them playing games…