Player Notes

8/30/2023Tuesday’s “First Call” has some advice for young Pittsburgh Steelers from a former rival of the club. A number of ex-Steelers and Pitt Panthers didn’t survive NFL cutdown day. And we look at how the success of the Steelers draft class ended up influencing the depth chart.Betting on BentonThe performance of one of the Steelers rookies dictated at least one of the Steelers roster cuts Tuesday.Second-round ...

8/30/2023A day after setting their initial 53-man active roster, the Pittsburgh Steelers began to tweak it by reportedly signing versatile former All-Pro cornerback Desmond King.The NFL Network reported the deal, and details on term of value were not yet available.Entering his seventh NFL season, King was released by the Houston Texans this week after playing in all 17 games and starting 13 for them ...

8/30/2023Dylan Cook learned he had made the Pittsburgh Steelers’ initial 53-man roster the same way the average fan did Tuesday afternoon.He saw it posted on the team website.The 25-year-old tackle and first-year player from Montana spent the day playing a FIFA soccer video game to pass the time until the 4 p.m. deadline came and went.“I probably played for five hours,” Cook said Wednesday. “That’s ...

8/30/2023The Pittsburgh Steelers added another veteran option to their cornerbacks corps Wednesday, signing 30-year-old Anthony Brown to their practice squad.Brown played the past eight seasons for the Dallas Cowboys but joins the Steelers nine months after suffering a torn Achilles injury that ended his 2022 season. Brown has been a starter for roughly three-quarters of the 94 NFL games he has played, ...

8/30/2023Half of the players the Pittsburgh Steelers released as part of their final cutdown Tuesday were brought back as half of their practice squad Wednesday.Eight of the 16 Steelers’ deadline day cuts were re-signed to the practice squad: cornerback Luq Barcoo, running back Greg Bell, defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko, receiver Dez Fitzpatrick, defensive lineman Jonathan Marshall, linebacker David ...

August 30, 2023 1:00 pmThe Jets last won the AFC East in 2002, a stinging fact of which coach Robert Saleh and the players are well aware.But they really don’t care.“These guys don’t care about what happened 20 years ago,” Saleh said on Wednesday. “They’re focused on the moment. It’s acknowledged, but it’s not their story. Their story is about to be written.”That story begins on “Monday Night Football” ...

NJ Advance Media for NJ.comUndrafted rookie receiver Xavier Gipson knew it was going to be tough to make the Jets roster, no matter how well he played in training camp and the preseason. So even after he performed quite well in training camp and the preseason, he was not surprised when the coaches called him into the facility before roster cutdown day and began the meeting by saying “sorry.”He was ...

NJ Advance Media for NJ.comIt’s no secret that the New York Jets were desperately seeking an upgrade at the quarterback position after last season. Jets quarterbacks ranked last in completion percentage (56.9) and passer rating (75) in 2022. They ranked second to last with 15 touchdowns.When it became clear that Aaron Rodgers wasn’t going to retire - after a short stint at a darkness retreat - and ...

NJ Advance Media for NJ.comJets general manager Joe Douglas and coach Robert Saleh have already endured the hardest part of the offseason: telling more than 30 players that they wouldn’t be making a NFL roster in the span of a few days.And while the Jets have trimmed their roster down to the initial 53 men, the roster won’t look the same on Monday, Sept. 11, when they start the season against the Bills ...

NJ Advance Media for NJ.comAnd now for the rest of the story.HBO’s Hard Knocks captured the moment early in Saturday’s game between the Jets and Giants when Jihad Ward gave Aaron Rodgers a light shove after the Jets’ quarterback had completed a short pass to Mecole Hardman that went for a 10-yard gain.The cameras showed Rodgers giving Ward, an eight-year NFL veteran, a shove back before the two exchanged ...