Baker Mayfield led a touchdown drive in his Tampa Bay Buccaneers debut, but Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph combined to lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 27-17 win in the preseason Week 1 contest.
Offensive spotlight: The Steelers ran it back with their 2022 trio of quarterbacks, handing Kenny Pickett (seven dropbacks), Mitch Trubisky (four) and Mason Rudolph (15) snaps — in addition to rookie Tanner Morgan (nine) — in this Week 1 affair. And Pickett proved to be the most effective, similar to last year.
The second-year signal-caller completed six of his seven attempts for 70 yards and a score to earn an 85.0-plus passing grade on first review. Rudolph made two big-time throws on his larger workload.
Defensive spotlight: All of the hype surrounding Nick Herbig is warranted, at least for now. The rookie played only eight pass-rushing snaps and still managed two sacks. Pending final reviews, he was the highest-graded defender in this game.
Got him 💪 @nickherbig_
📲: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/T87FSnfvVk pic.twitter.com/VsotfBUecA
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 12, 2023
Rookie spotlight: Buccaneers second-round pick Cody Mauch logged 41 snaps but struggled overall. He let up two pressures, including one sack, and didn't fare well as a run blocker after the initial review of the game.
Offensive line spotlight: While the Buccaneers' line surrendered four sacks compared to the Steelers' one, the unit allowed only eight pressures overall, pending review. Pittsburgh's line surrendered nine pressures on 27 pass-blocking snaps as a group.
Box Score
Passing
Pittsburgh Steelers |
||||||
| Player | Fantasy | Comp/Att | Yds | YPA | TD | Int |
| Mason Rudolph | 10.78 | 7 / 12 | 132 | 11 | 1 | 0 |
| Kenny Pickett | 6.8 | 6 / 7 | 70 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| Tanner Morgan | 0.34 | 5 / 8 | 36 | 4.5 | 0 | 1 |
| Mitch Trubisky | -0.6 | 1 / 4 | 10 | 2.5 | 0 | 1 |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
||||||
| Player | Fantasy | Comp/Att | Yds | YPA | TD | Int |
| John Wolford | 8.64 | 10 / 17 | 111 | 6.5 | 1 | 0 |
| Baker Mayfield | 6.52 | 8 / 9 | 63 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| Kyle Trask | 2.96 | 6 / 10 | 99 | 9.9 | 0 | 1 |
Rushing
Pittsburgh Steelers |
||||||
| Player | Fantasy | Car | Yds | YPC | TD | Long |
| Calvin Austin III | 17.6 | 2 | 23 | 11.5 | 0 | 17 |
| Mason Rudolph | 10.78 | 2 | 15 | 7.5 | 0 | 15 |
| Anthony McFarland Jr. | 9.3 | 3 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 14 |
| Connor Heyward | 5.9 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Darius Hagans | 2.6 | 5 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| Greg Bell | 1.9 | 7 | 8 | 1.1 | 0 | 6 |
| Jaylen Warren | 1.3 | 3 | 13 | 4.3 | 0 | 10 |
| Jordan Byrd | 1.2 | 1 | -4 | -4 | 0 | -4 |
| Tanner Morgan | 0.34 | 2 | -1 | -0.5 | 0 | 0 |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
||||||
| Player | Fantasy | Car | Yds | YPC | TD | Long |
| John Wolford | 8.64 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Kaylon Geiger | 8.2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Taye Barber | 4 | 1 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| Deven Thompkins | 3.7 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| Chase Edmonds | 3.2 | 6 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| Sean Tucker | 2.3 | 6 | 10 | 1.7 | 0 | 5 |
| Ronnie Brown | 2.1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Patrick Laird | 0.8 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Ke'Shawn Vaughn | 0.4 | 7 | 4 | 0.6 | 0 | 4 |
Receiving
Pittsburgh Steelers |
||||||
| Player | Fantasy | Tgt | Rec | Yds | YPT | TD |
| Calvin Austin III | 17.6 | 4 | 2 | 73 | 18.2 | 1 |
| George Pickens | 10.3 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 33 | 1 |
| Anthony McFarland Jr. | 9.3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Diontae Johnson | 6.2 | 3 | 3 | 32 | 10.7 | 0 |
| Connor Heyward | 5.9 | 2 | 2 | 34 | 17 | 0 |
| Hakeem Butler | 2.7 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 8.5 | 0 |
| Darius Hagans | 2.6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Gunner Olszewski | 2.4 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 7 | 0 |
| Rodney Williams | 2.1 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 5.5 | 0 |
| Greg Bell | 1.9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Darnell Washington | 1.9 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| Cody White | 1.7 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2.3 | 0 |
| Pat Freiermuth | 1.6 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| Jaylen Warren | 1.3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jordan Byrd | 1.2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| Najee Harris | 0.9 | 1 | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 |
| Zach Gentry | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
||||||
| Player | Fantasy | Tgt | Rec | Yds | YPT | TD |
| Trey Palmer | 13.3 | 4 | 4 | 33 | 8.2 | 1 |
| David Moore | 9.6 | 4 | 3 | 66 | 16.5 | 0 |
| Kaylon Geiger | 8.2 | 5 | 4 | 50 | 10 | 0 |
| Payne Durham | 7.3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1.5 | 1 |
| Taye Barber | 4 | 5 | 1 | 17 | 3.4 | 0 |
| Ryan Miller | 4 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 10 | 0 |
| Deven Thompkins | 3.7 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 4.5 | 0 |
| Chase Edmonds | 3.2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| David Wells | 3.2 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 22 | 0 |
| Tanner Taula | 3 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 20 | 0 |
| Sean Tucker | 2.3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Ronnie Brown | 2.1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Kade Warner | 2 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
| Dominique Dafney | 1.6 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| Patrick Laird | 0.8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ko Kieft | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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