Steelers kicker Chris Boswell didn’t miss a kick in October.
Boswell was called on to kick 12 field goals over the last four weeks and he made all of them. The same was true of his 10 extra point attempts and Boswell has now made all 16 extra points he’s tried this season.
The veteran kicker did miss one field goal in September, but he made his other 11 tries and the 23 makes are the most in the league this season.
On Thursday, the NFL announced that Boswell has been named the AFC’s special teams player of the month for October. It’s the second time Boswell has taken the honor, but it has been a while since the first. Boswell was last recognized by the league in December 2015.
No team picked defensive back Beanie Bishop in this year’s draft and that is looking like a major blunder by scouting departments across the league after the first couple of months of the season.
Bishop signed with the Steelers and won a role in the defense during training camp. That role has grown since the start of the regular season and the last couple of games have seen Bishop play a starring role on the national stage.
Two interceptions against the Jets on Sunday night in Week Seven were followed by another one against the Giants on Monday night in Week Eight. Bishop started both wins and he had 17 tackles, two tackles for loss, and five passes defensed over the course of October.
Bishop’s performance has made it impossible for the league to continue overlooking him and the NFL confirmed that when named him the defensive rookie of the month for October on Thursday.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the nine semifinalists for the contributor category for the Class of 2025.
K.S. “Bud” Adams, Ralph Hay, Frank “Bucko” Kilroy, Robert Kraft, Art Modell, Art Rooney Jr., Seymour Siwoff, Doug Williams and John Wooten advance to the next round of voting.
Members of the contributor blue-ribbon committee made their selections from a field of 25 in their most recent reduction vote. The committee will discuss the semifinalists at length when it meets virtually Nov. 12 to select one Finalist for the full selection committee to consider for possible election with the new class of enshrinees.
Kilroy, Kraft, Rooney and Wooten reached this point in the selection process last year when coaches and contributors were in the same category. The Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors voted earlier this year to separate the groups and send one finalist from each through to the annual selection meeting to determine the new class.
Reduction votes also are occurring in the modern-era players, seniors and coach categories. Eventually, 20 finalists will be presented at the selection committee’s annual meeting next year in advance of Super Bowl LIX.
The selectors will vote on 15 modern-era players, three seniors, one coach and one contributor.
While the Hall has no set number for any class of enshrinees, the Hall of Fame’s selection process bylaws stipulate that between four and eight new members will be selected.
Steelers pass rusher T.J. Watt was named AFC defensive player of the week for his performance on Monday night against the Giants. But Giants right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor was not impressed.
Eluemunor believes that for the most part, he won the individual battle with Watt when blocking him on Monday night.
“I was on an island with him for a majority of the game. And he didn‘t do a damn thing. I’m not gonna sit here and fricking sing his praises,” Eluemunor told WFAN Radio, via SI.com. “He didn’t do anything for three-and-half quarters and had one impact play.”
Of course, that “one impact play” was a huge strip sack on which Watt blew right past Eluemunor, when the Giants had a miscommunication on offense that led Daniel Jones to fail to call for Eluemunor to get help with Watt. It’s a bit strange that Eluemunor is choosing to call out Watt after a game in which he played a huge role in a Giants loss that dropped the team to 2-6.
Watt had seven total tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss in the game. It’s hard to see how anyone could say he didn’t do a damn thing.
Pittsburgh’s special teams have been excellent in recent weeks and one of the unit’s key contributors has now been recognized for his performance.
The NFL has named Calvin Austin AFC special teams player of the week for his role in the Steelers’ 26-18 victory over the Giants.
Austin had a 73-yard punt return for a touchdown in the third quarter. It was the game’s first touchdown and gave the Steelers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Austin also had a 29-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter.
This is Austin’s first career player of the week award.
Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt also won AFC defensive player of the week for his role in the win against New York.
Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt put up a strong performance in his team’s 26-18 victory over the Giants on Monday night.
Now Watt has been named AFC defensive player of the week for the eighth time in his career.
Watt finished the Week 8 contest with seven total tackles, 2.0 sacks, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.
In the fourth quarter, Watt strip-sacked quarterback Daniel Jones and recovered the loose ball to stop a key possession in Pittsburgh territory.
Watt now has 6.5 sacks, 10 tackles for loss, 14 quarterback hits, and a league-high four forced fumbles in 2024.
At some point during the 1980s, football overtook baseball as America’s pastime. And football hasn’t looked back.
But baseball is still capable for scoring a periodic win, under the right circumstances. On Monday night, with Game 3 of the World Series against teams from the two biggest markets in the country against a Monday night game featuring the lackluster Giants, baseball drew a bigger audience than football.
Via FrontOfficeSports.com, the Dodgers-Yankees averaged 13.6 million viewers. But Giants-Steelers did only 13.4 million, despite an ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 multicast.
ESPN didn’t send out a press release on Monday with the audience numbers for the Week 8 game. That’s no surprise. The football viewership is low, especially with the game televised on a three-letter network in addition to the usual ESPN platforms.
But that’s OK. It’s Dodgers-Yankees in the World Series. Classic teams, massive markets. And, again, the Giants aren’t good enough to draw attention away from the local baseball team that is trying to win its first championship since 2009.
The fact that the football game came within 200,000 viewers of winning should be viewed as a positive. This is the World Series, not some run-of-the-mill regular-season game. While the NFL has grown accustomed to mopping the floor with MLB, Monday night’s ratings race was close enough for the NFL to declare yet another victory in the long-decided struggle between football and baseball for American sports supremacy.
The Steelers will have cornerback Cameron Sutton available to them for the rest of the season.
Sutton, who was suspended eight games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, had his suspension lifted on Tuesday. He currently has a roster exemption and does not count toward the Steelers’ 53-player limit, but they can add him to their active roster if they decide he’s ready to play.
Sutton started all 17 regular-season games and all three postseason games for the Lions last year but was but by the Lions in March when news broke that he had an active arrest warrant out for him in a domestic violence case and had failed to turn himself in. Sutton was actually in the Lions facility when the news broke, and the Lions decided they no longer wanted him to be part of their team.
For the Steelers, Sutton is a potentially significant mid-season addition. Not many teams are able to add a starting-caliber cornerback at this time of year, but that’s what the Steelers have effectively just done.
The Steelers cut linebacker Adetokunbo Ogundeji from the active roster, the team announced Tuesday.
They signed him to the active roster from the practice squad 10 days ago. He has bounced between the practice squad and the active roster this season, so the Steelers likely re-sign him to the practice squad.
He played four defensive snaps and one on special teams in Monday night’s victory over the Giants.
In three games this season, he has seen action on 25 defensive snaps and six on special teams.
The Falcons made Ogundeji a fifth-round pick in 2021, and he started 11 games as a rookie and then made 16 starts in 2022. Ogundeji spent 2023 on injured reserve with a lower body injury.
Atlanta released Ogundeji in May.
The Steelers also announced they cut running back La’Mical Perine and cornerback Thomas Graham from the practice squad.
Diontae Johnson is headed back to the AFC North.
According to multiple reports, the Ravens are acquiring Johnson from the Panthers to help boost what’s already one of the league’s best offenses.
Carolina will receive a fifth-round pick from Baltimore for Johnson and a sixth-round pick.
Johnson, 28, has caught 30 passes for 357 yards with three touchdowns in seven games for the Panthers this year.
The receiver spent his first five seasons with the Steelers before being traded to the Panthers during the 2024 offseason.
In 84 career games, Johnson has 421 receptions for 4,720 yards with 28 TDs.
Baltimore is currently No. 1 in total yards and No. 2 in points scored. Despite being No. 24 in passing attempts, the Ravens are No. 5 in passing yards. Lamar Jackson has completed 67 percent of his throws for 2,099 yards with 17 touchdowns and two interceptions.
Zay Flowers leads the Ravens with 41 catches for 627 yards with a touchdown. Rashod Bateman has 422 yards on 22 catches with three touchdowns.
After losing to Cleveland to break a five-game winning streak on Sunday, Baltimore will host Denver in Week 9.
