The Pittsburgh Steelers will face their toughest challenge of the preseason this Saturday when they take on the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are the media favorite to dominate the AFC this year so even though these games don’t count, it would be great to see a good effort from Pittsburgh.
Several players stepped up big last week, while others fell flat and some didn’t get a chance at all. Here are the five guys we can’t wait to watch this weekend.
LB Ulysees Gilbert III
We were on the Gilbert hype train well before the draft. He did not disappoint in his first NFL action with three tackles and 1.5 sacks. This is a young player who always provided a spark with his speed in college and he hasn’t let up in the NFL. We can’t wait to see what he does for an encore.
WR Diontae Johnson
Training camp has been completely hit or miss for Johnson. He has either been on the field, making plays, or he’s been injured. It hasn’t been officially announced if Johnson will be able to play this week but we are hopeful these little injuries aren’t going to linger into the regular season.
RB Benny Snell Jr.
Snell got 13 carries last week but aside from one or two nice runs, was largely kept in check. There’s been nothing official about if James Conner is playing but we really want to see Snell get another heavy workload and see if he can build on last week’s game.
CB Justin Layne
Things didn’t go well for Layne last week. He looked lost at times and seems to be more of a project than he is an immediate help. It will be important to see how Layne responds to a bad performance when faced with coming back against an even better team.
K Chris Boswell
We loved what we saw from Boswell last week. The Steelers need him to be the 2017 version of himself and week one was a step in the right direction. Will head coach Mike Tomlin keep alternating kickers or hand the duties over the Boswell full time to see what he can do?
