Joe Rutter stories, Page 23

For the second consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Steelers will have the same three quarterbacks in training camp. Kenny Pickett, though, will no longer arrive as an invited guest when the Steelers report to Saint Vincent College. He has a seat firmly placed at the head of the table. Third on...

Alex Highsmith wanted to get a contract done with the Pittsburgh Steelers before the team reported to training camp. He is getting his wish. A week before the Steelers head to Saint Vincent College, Highsmith and the organization agreed to a five-year contract. The deal includes $68 million as part...

The clean slate that the Pittsburgh Steelers will take into training camp at inside linebacker isn’t confined to just the players, although that group includes two new starters and two potential backups who weren’t on the roster a year ago. It also holds true for their position coach. Aaron Curry...

Art Rooney Jr., whose work in the player personnel in the 1970s helped pave the way for the Pittsburgh Steelers to win four Super Bowl titles in that decade, is one of two men with ties to the organization who are semifinalists for election to the Pro Football Hall of...

When the Pittsburgh Steelers report to training camp in two weeks, rookie Darnell Washington could be fourth on the unofficial depth chart among tight ends. Washington also could be situated in that spot behind Pat Freiermuth, Zach Gentry and Connor Heyward when the regular season opens in September. That wouldn’t...

It has been three years since Deon Cain wore a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform, the last time he donned any NFL team’s colors in the regular season. Based on his performance Saturday in the USFL championship game, the 26-year-old wide receiver could expect his phone to ring this summer, with an...

When head coach Ray Horton offered his opening remarks on the eve of the USFL championship, he wasn’t concerned that the Pittsburgh Maulers took a losing record into the game against the league’s top team, the Birmingham Stallions. “We’re ready,” Horton said Friday. “We’re like fine-tuned thoroughbred horses that are...

CANTON, Ohio — It took 30 years and stops at seven NFL destinations for Ray Horton to secure a head coaching job at any level of football. And it came not in the sport’s most decorated league but rather in the upstart USFL. Horton, the former Steelers assistant who was...

CANTON, Ohio — Ray Horton can’t take credit for the inspirational words that have served as the Pittsburgh Maulers’ rallying cry late in the USFL season. The Maulers, coached by the former Steelers assistant and NFL defensive coordinator, have overcome a 2-6 start with three consecutive wins that improbably have...

After going more than a month without getting one of their three remaining unsigned draft picks under contract, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed first-round offensive tackle Broderick Jones and second-round defensive tackle Keeanu Benton to their rookie contracts Friday. Jones signed about an hour after the Steelers inked Benton to his...

As he enters his first full season as an NFL starting quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kenny Pickett looks to build on the on-field connection he has forged over the past year with wide receivers Diontae Johnson and George Pickens. The time Pickett has spent with veteran pass catcher Allen...

If the worst day of the calendar year for coach Mike Tomlin is when the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season ends, next on the list is when minicamp concludes. That means a six-week lull before Tomlin can resume football activities with his players. The early months of his offseason are occupied with...

Matt Canada doesn’t plan to deviate from the run-oriented offensive script that helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win seven of their final nine games in 2022. In fact, he has been told to dial up more of it this season. The third-year offensive coordinator said Wednesday that he will implement a...

Teryl Austin was a young defensive backs coach with the Seattle Seahawks in 2005 when they faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. This was before the vaunted “Legion of Boom” years in Seattle, and Austin recalled the team undergoing considerable turnover on defense in a short time span....

Saquon Barkley has an ally in Najee Harris. Harris is under contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers and not in a position to hold out like Barkley, the New York Giants star running back and Penn State product who isn’t attending minicamp while trying to negotiate a long-term contract. Still, Harris...

Outside linebacker Alex Highsmith arrived at mandatory minicamp Tuesday minus the long-term contract he has been seeking from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He took the practice field with the rest of his teammates and was a full participant in team as well as individual drills. That was a departure from prior...

Phase 3, the final stage of offseason workouts, takes place this week for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the form of a three-day minicamp at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. Like the nine organized team activities that preceded it, players will don shorts and helmets but no shoulder pads, and tackling is...

Two weeks into NFL free agency, and Keanu Neal was still looking for a home. A former first-round pick and eighth-year veteran, Neal was out of work and looking for a team that could use a hard-nosed safety and player capable of moving into a linebacker role in subpackage situations....

With the Pittsburgh Steelers inviting alumni to watch organized team activities this week, former linebacker and assistant coach Joey Porter made the short drive from the North Hills to watch one player in particular Thursday morning. His son. Rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr., the team’s first pick of the second...

In terms of distance traveled, Jaylen Warren relocated about 10 feet in the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room. The distance traveled in his young NFL career over the past year, however, might be impossible to calculate. A year ago, Warren was among a handful of undrafted rookie prospects trying to earn...

It was 51 weeks ago, after the Pittsburgh Steelers had entered their break prior to training camp, that they signed Minkah Fitzpatrick to a contract extension that made him the highest-paid free safety in the NFL. The signing was not unexpected because of Fitzpatrick’s value to the team. He was...

It took three trips into free agency for Larry Ogunjobi to sign a long-term contract with an NFL team. Considering all he went through to get to that point and the way he was used last season, that made it an easy decision for the veteran defensive tackle to re-sign...

If anyone knows — or thought he knew — the ins and outs of Matt Canada’s offense, it’s Mason Rudolph. Rudolph, the No. 3 quarterback on the Pittsburgh Steelers depth chart, has known the offensive coordinator since 2020 when Canada spent one season as quarterbacks coach. Canada was promoted the...

With the third phase of the Pittsburgh Steelers offseason workouts halfway over, first-round draft pick Broderick Jones already is making his move toward becoming a starter. Dan Moore, who started at left tackle the past two seasons, confirmed this week that he has been taking snaps at right tackle. That’s...

Patrick Peterson could be forgiven for thinking the calendar had taken a time jump two months ahead. Instead of it reading June 1, it seemed like August for Peterson. Not just because of the sweltering heat and temperature that reached 90 degrees. It also was because of the intensity he...