Mike McCarthy’s Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Green Bay Packers 28-9 to open their 2026 preseason campaign on a hot and steamy night at Acrisure Stadium.
The win gave fans their long-awaited look at quarterbacks Will Howard and Drew Allar as well as wide receivers Germie Bernard and Kaden Wetjen along with cornerback Daylen Everette.
- After watching a game chocked full of ESPN-worthy highlights, what are hard takeaways?
How about Mike McCarthy now has one more thing in common with Mike Tomlin than he does with Bill Cowher or Chuck Noll because McCarthy, like Tomlin, won his preseason debut whereas Cowher and Noll lost theirs….
Now that you’re prepared for a “Steelers Preseason” Final Jeopardy, let’s acknowledge that injuries are about the only hard truths that come out of the first preseason game of the summer. And fortunately the Steelers appeared to emerge relatively clean on that front.
But it was an exciting win, and it did leave commentators with a lot to comment on. So let’s comment.
Who doesn’t like a quarterback who knocks the helmet off of a defender? Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune Review.
1. Front and Center Focus Gives Us a Mixed Bag
The most important thing for the Steelers to get right this summer is to solidify their offensive line and strengthen their defensive spine.
- The Packers game gave them their first test and results were mixed.
Pass protection was erratic. Mason Rudolph was only in for a handful of series and he was still sacked twice. Both Dylan Cook and Troy Fautanu got beat in critical snaps. The Steelers also averaged 2.6 yards on the ground, so the offensive line wasn’t exactly road-grading either.
Still, with that understood, the offensive line did give Rudolph enough protection to complete 10 of 11 passes and march the team to the one yard line.
On the flip side, the Steelers defense had a strong night overall, keeping the Packers out of the end zone for the entire game. Although Keeanu Benton got the start at nose tackle, both Yahya Black and Gabriel Rubio saw extended time and both men looked good, with Rubio logging six tackles.
2. Rudolph, Howard, Allar and the Quarterback Derby
Both Will Howard and Drew Allar made their NFL debuts and both men played very well.
Howard impressively ran the two-minute drill to set up Lew Nichols touchdown just before the end of the first half. Allar relieved him at the end of the third quarter, throwing two touchdown passes while running one in on his own.
Allar went 10 of 13 for 2 TDs and 163 yards with no sacks, while Howard went 10 of 11 for 93 yards and one sack. That’s about as good as anyone could have hoped for or expected.
But if you were to judge their performance by reactions on social media, you’d think the Steelers suddenly had a Joe Montana-Steve Young situation on their hands. OK, perhaps that exaggerates things slightly, but it is amazing to see the number of people who are ready to cut Mason Rudolph after watching Howard and Allar.
Yes, both Howard and Allar looked good, but they did most of their work playing against guys who, in a month’s time, will count themselves lucky if they land a tryout with the Brooklyn Pharaohs.
In contrast, the vast majority of the men Mason Rudolph played against will make the Packers’ opening day roster, and many will start. What really stuck out about Rudolph was his poise.
He didn’t have great pass protection, and Travis Homer wasn’t exactly “pounding the rock.” Yet he remained in command of the offense at all times to the point where his best pass of the night was officially an incomplete one:
This would’ve been one heck of a touchdown pass from #Steelers QB Mason Rudolph.
Germie Bernard couldn’t get both feet in. Almost. pic.twitter.com/ufCUtnX8xm
— Arye Pulli (@AryePulliNFL) August 13, 2026
Yes, we can and should be pleased to see Howard and Allar get off to good starts. But if Aaron Rodgers should become unavailable, this is the kind of quarterback I want taking his place.
3. Reclamation ROI in Real Time?
The Steelers defense put up a lot of stats, and several players made eye-catching plays. But the one man who really stood out was cornerback Asante Samuel Jr..
When Joey Porter Jr.’s hold-in began, someone on social media speculated that he might be in the process of Wally Pipping himself. That’s a bit extreme. But Asante Samuel Jr. played extremely well, and at this point looks to be a real asset in the secondary.
Rookie safety and 7th round draft pick Robert Spears-Jennings also looked good.
4. Wetjen Strikes Just When You Least Expect It
The only real eyebrow raising choice in the Steelers 2026 draft class was using a fourth-rounder on Kaden Wetjen. The Steelers drafted him as a kick returner, as he had a total of 13 catches in his college career.
And throughout training camp wise scribes such as Jim Wexell and Roy Countryman have been telling us that Wetjen’s been looking extremely sharp as a return man, but didn’t figure to be a factor in the passing game.
Against the Packers, Wetjen got to return 3 kicks and 2 punts and, while he didn’t do anything to look bad, he also did nothing special. No sooner did that thought occur to me than Drew Allar found him on this slant route:
- Quite impressive, even if a stumble cost him a touchdown.
Yet, Allar found him later in the end zone, and the evening ended with Wetjen leading the Steelers in receiving yards and catching a touchdown.
Kaden Wetjet catches a Drew Allar touchdown. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The odds favor Wetjet’s 79-yard streaking reception to be more of a Matthew Thomas type play (name ring a bell but can’t quite place this one? Then click here) than Franco Harris taking it to the house in his preseason debut, but he did show us that we shouldn’t sleep on him being a part of the wide receiving room.
5. A Word About the Offense
The Steelers offense scored four touchdowns, had 17 first downs, converted 7 of 13 third downs and had a slight edge in time of possession. The numbers alone, of course, in a preseason game tell us next to nothing.
- But the unit passed “the eye test.”
In the heyday of Kenny Pickett’s preseason glory days the Steelers offense put together some nice drives, but they had a video game feel too them dissipated immediately once the games counted for real.
In the booth during the game Art Rooney II described Mike McCarthy as “meticulous” and this is how his offense felt. Even when you control for the quality of competition, the Steelers offense played like a unit that knew what it wanted to do, and was going out and doing it. And the maintained that same “look and feel” with three separate quarterbacks.
Finally, seeing rookie fullback Riley Nowakowski lining up in a Power-I Formation early in the game? That was a true cherry on top.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is only preseason. Let’s keep it real. But it’s far better to look good than to look bad.
