A Steelers Depot daily segment. A quick hit of some Pittsburgh Steelers-related stories that may not require a complete article but nuggets worth mentioning and passing on to you guys.
Your Depot After Dark for Aug. 18.
Porter Accepts Award
During halftime of Saturday night’s game against the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. officially accepted the Joe Greene Award for the team’s top rookie of the 2023 season. Porter won the award last year but was recognized and given his trophy yesterday.
Porter emerged as the Steelers’ top cornerback last season, often shadowing the opposing top wideout. He’ll enter 2024 in that same role and with a strong season, could be viewed nationally as one of the top ten corners in the NFL. Beyond him, the Steelers have a promising 2023 class of NT Keeanu Benton, OLB Nick Herbig, and TE Darnell Washington.
Bills LB On Playing Fields
While Buffalo Bills LB and Buffalo native Joe Andreessen had a stellar performance against the Steelers, he admits there were nerves heading into the game. Especially at the prospect of trying to combat QB Justin Fields in the open field.
“I was telling the guys on the sideline, I was super nervous,” he said via the Bills’ YouTube channel. “Even though you can’t really get nervous mid-play, I was nervous. That’s definitely a very athletic guy out there. And there was a lot of room. Just very happy to make the play.”
Andreessen is referring to his fourth down tackle and stop against Fields on this read option, preventing a conversion as the Steelers tried to put the ball in the end zone.
Undrafted, Andreessen impressed with 12 total tackles, two going for a loss. He’s pushing hard for a spot in Buffalo.
Penix’s Done For The Summer
The Atlanta Falcons made the shocking decision to draft Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. in the first round of April’s draft despite signing Kirk Cousins to a mega-contract barely more than a month prior. Now, they’re surprising the national media again by shutting him down for the preseason.
Despite being perfectly healthy and appearing in the preseason opener, Penix didn’t appear in yesterday’s exhibition game against the Baltimore Ravens. Now will he play in Friday’s contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Head coach Raheem Morris Penix won’t suit up in Week 3.
Penix went 9-of-16 for 104 yards in the Falcons’ preseason opener. Now, he’s getting ready for Week 1 backing up Kirk Cousins when the Steelers come to town Sept. 8. So on the chance that Cousins can’t finish the game, it’ll be Penix’s first in-stadium snaps in nearly a month.
Danny Smith Mic’d Up
Though Danny Smith wasn’t actually wearing a microphone during Saturday’s game, the on-field mics caught him yelling at the ref on this Bills’ punt.
You can hear Smith yell out, “he ain’t breaking the plane. What the hell are you talking about?” ostensibly to the ref or perhaps just out loud to himself. Take a listen.
You can see the parabolic mic to the left of Smith designed to pick up crowd and field audio pick up Smith’s voice.
Looking at the play, it seems Smith is talking to the side judge to his left about the Bills left tackle on this punt. NFL rules state that the linemen don’t have to align even with the long snapper but their helmets must break the plane of the center’s waist, meaning they can’t “cheat” and align too deep. You can see the LT is back a little bit further than that here and Smith, I assume, wanted a penalty. The ref disagreed.
Now if you excuse me, I gotta go make that clip my ringtone.