Just an all-around terrible night for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but there were a few bright spots worth acknowledging from preseason week 2 against the New York Jets. The winners list was short, the losers list was long, and the takeaway is that Pittsburgh has a lot to clean up before the regular season.

Winners

S Robert Spears-Jennings

Seventh-round rookie safety Robert Spears-Jennings stood out as one of the few defensive positives. The Oklahoma product came into camp with questions about how well he’d translate to an NFL defense, but he made a big-time play on special teams and followed that up by flying all over the field. He was one of the few bright spots on that side of the ball, alongside 10-year veteran safety Rayshawn Jenkins.

S Rayshawn Jenkins

Jenkins had multiple pressures, a big-time tackle for loss, and was being utilized heavily in blitz packages. He was getting home consistently, and I liked what I saw from him.

LB Elandon Roberts

Inside linebacker Elandon Roberts was the most dominant player on the field. It was like watching a four-year varsity starter take on the freshman squad at practice. Roberts was in the backfield on what felt like every snap, forcing tackles for loss, tackling pass catchers well short of the sticks, and blowing up opposing centers. It was a man-amongst-boys performance.

LB Carson Bruener

Fellow inside linebacker Carson Bruener also had a strong night with a sack and solid play all over the field. He’s traditionally more of a special teams player and stacked backer, but he looked rangy and athletic. Given how poorly the defense played overall, his performance stood out.

P Cameron Johnston

Punter Cameron Johnston had a busy night, as shown by Pittsburgh’s lack of points, and he handled the workload well.

QB Mason Rudolph

And then there’s Mason Rudolph, who didn’t take a single snap the entire game. That might make him the biggest quarterback winner of the night, and the reason why becomes clear when you look at the losers.

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Losers

1st team defense

The first-team defense was awful. Geno Smith marched down the field and went 7-for-7 with a touchdown. An obvious miscommunication between the linebackers and the defensive line let a receiver leak into the flat and score easily. That was one-on-ones, and it was pitch-and-catch for Smith. Not what you want to see from your starters.

OT Broderick Jones

Offensive tackle Broderick Jones really struggled at right tackle. The truth is, I don’t know why he was there. If Jones is going to play for the Steelers, he should probably be at left tackle. We’ve seen this song and dance before with Jones on the right side. Jets rookie defensive end David Bailey, the second overall pick, absolutely took his lunch money and got quarterback Will Howard sacked.

QB Will Howard

Howard had a confounding night. If you just looked at the highlights, he made some good throws over the middle, moved well in the pocket, and negotiated the pass rush. But none of that matters because, as Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said at halftime, the good plays were all negated by two bad interceptions. On one, captured from a KDKA angle, Howard threw the ball blindly to a safety who undercut the drag route for an easy pick. On the other, he threw behind the wide receiver on a poor decision. Why are you throwing to receivers who are basically plastered in coverage? Rough night for Howard that clouds his future despite him earning the start.

Will Howard sees man coverage and the crosser win leverage. He assumes the single high safety is playing the middle 3rd, but he lurks into the passing lane and picks his pocket. #Steelers 🎥 via KDKA, @Alex_Kozora pic.twitter.com/Vd33A7WxKh

— Rob Gregson (@NFL_Rob) August 21, 2026

Offensive Line

The offensive line was the biggest culprit, though. It was difficult to even evaluate quarterback Drew Allar because of how poorly the line and the skill positions played around him. Allar doesn’t appear on the losers list for that reason. The bottom line is, Pittsburgh’s protection was horrible across the board.

Penalties

The penalties also resurfaced as a problem. The Steelers had cleaned things up in the first half after a penalty-plagued preseason week 1, but the flags came back to bite them in the second half. Kaden Wetjen had a fumble on a return and bobbled another, though he did flash some ability in between.

So the question becomes: what do you do with a game like this? The coaching staff will watch the tape because it’s preseason and that’s the exercise. But if this were a regular season game, you’d flush it and move on to the next week. It was a comedy of errors on every side of the ball for Pittsburgh, and there’s plenty of work to do before the games start counting.