Joe Rutter stories, Page 59

No matter what is written on paper, the first thing that stands out about Pressley Harvin III is his size. Harvin was listed as being 5-foot-11 and weighing 263 pounds on his NFL.com profile. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ bio adds another inch but deducts eight pounds from his frame. Either way,...

For the inaugural 17-game NFL season, the Pittsburgh Steelers will open and close their schedule on the road. They will play five games in prime time, including three at Heinz Field. And they will close the year with four games against teams that went a combined 47-17 last season. For...

The last three times the Pittsburgh Steelers have played the Buffalo Bills, the game has been contested in December. Not this season. When the 2021 NFL season kicks off, the Steelers will play the Bills at the newly named Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y. The...

Devin Bush is among the NFL players questioning the Jacksonville Jaguars’ decision to sign Tim Tebow following an eight-year absence from football. Tebow, who will turn 34 in August, is expected to convert from quarterback to tight end. The Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker appeared to take exception to the signing in...

When Mike Tomlin announced the Pittsburgh Steelers’ seventh-round draft pick May 1 and called Tre Norwood a Swiss Army knife, he left out an important detail. Norwood didn’t just play multiple positions in the secondary during his redshirt junior season at Oklahoma. “He did it throughout the same game,” Oklahoma...

Alan Faneca will have more on his plate this summer aside from being one of the newest members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Faneca, 44, was hired Monday as head football coach at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Va. The former Steelers All-Pro guard previously...

Pittsburgh will be well represented when the National Junior College Athletic Association Foundation Hall of Fame inducts its inaugural class virtually June 24. The seven-member class includes two honorees with ties to the city: Schenley graduate and Clairton native Larry Brown and Steelers assistant head coach John Mitchell. Others in...

An injury at center forced guard Kendrick Green to move into the middle of the Illinois offensive line during the final game of the 2019 season. Green was penciled in to start again in the pivot for the Redbox Bowl when he injured his groin while the Illini were practicing...

In a move designed to add veteran depth to the position room, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed safety Arthur Maulet to a one-year contract Friday afternoon. Maulet, 27, spent the past two seasons with the New York Jets. He started 11 games and appeared in 23 over those two seasons. The...

The Pittsburgh Steelers added a cornerback from the 2020 draft class then reduced the roster at tight end and punter. DeMarkus Acy, who went undrafted out of Missouri in 2020, was signed to a one-year contract Monday. He was with the San Francisco 49ers last summer and spent part of...

Keith Butler couldn’t be blamed for wondering when the Pittsburgh Steelers would draft a player to help his defense. He watched running back Najee Harris go in the first round Thursday. He sat by as the Steelers took a tight end and an interior offensive lineman Friday. The Steelers began...

An NFL Draft that continued its course down the road to fixing the league’s least effective running game took a U-turn for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday. After using a fourth consecutive pick on an offensive talent, and second in a row along the line, the Steelers turned their attention...

After making four consecutive picks on defense, the Pittsburgh Steelers closed their portion of the NFL Draft on Saturday by switching to special teams. Pressley Harvin III, the strong-legged punter from Georgia Tech, was the Steelers’ second pick of the seventh round, No. 254 overall. Harvin was the only punter...

TRE NORWOOD Seventh-round pick, No. 245 overall CB/S, Oklahoma 6-foot, 192 pounds Stats: Had five of his six career interceptions as redshirt junior in 2020. Hometown: Fort Smith, Ark. Tidbits: Norwood missed the 2019 season because of a knee injury suffered in fall camp. … He was slow to return...

Growing up near Baltimore, Quincy Roche was well aware of the Pittsburgh Steelers from their fierce AFC North rivalry with the Ravens. Now that he’s the Steelers’ newest outside linebacker, Roche is more than ready to change allegiances. He’s just hoping the rest of his family complies, too. “I’m in...

Entering the NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers had 11 players capable of playing somewhere on the defensive line on their offseason roster. And despite that position group being universally regarded as the weakest in this year’s class, the Steelers traded into the fifth round Saturday to grab another big body...

BUDDY JOHNSON Fourth-round pick, No. 140 overall Linebacker, Texas A&M 6-foot, 229 pounds Stats: Led Texas A&M with 86 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles as a senior. Hometown: Dallas, Texas Tidbits: Given name is Devodrick Johnson. His mother gave her son his nickname because she thought...

When Steelers president Art Rooney II said the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to take steps toward improving the NFL’s 32nd-ranked running game, he was serious. One look at the team’s top four picks in the NFL Draft rammed home Rooney’s intentions. The third day of the draft opened Saturday with...

With the No. 87 pick of the NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers got the center they coveted to replace retired Maurkice Pouncey. It just wasn’t the one that most draft experts expected. The Steelers selected Illinois’ Kendrick Green, a 6-foot-2, 305-pound redshirt junior. Green played guard as well as in...

PAT FREIERMUTH Second-round pick, No. 55 overall Tight end, Penn State 6-5, 251 Stats: 92 catches, 1,185 yards, 16 TDs in three seasons Hometown: Merrimac, Mass. Tidbits: Declared for the NFL Draft after his junior season. … Steelers GM Kevin Colbert, coach Mike Tomlin and new TE coach Alfredo Roberts...

A certain Hall of Fame running back offered a special greeting Friday afternoon to the newest member of the Pittsburgh Steelers backfield, one who carries an identical surname. “Welcome to Pittsburgh, cuz,” Franco Harris said with a laugh. To say Harris is happy the Steelers took former Alabama star Najee...

The Pittsburgh Steelers got the running back they waited all night — and arguably the past three months — to select when they took Alabama’s Najee Harris with the No. 24 overall pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday. “We were very excited he was there for us,” general manager...

With only one quarterback on the roster signed potentially beyond this season, the Pittsburgh Steelers made Mason Rudolph the second. The Steelers announced Thursday less than hour before the start of the NFL Draft that they had signed Rudolph to a one-year extension. He was scheduled to become an unrestricted...

Draft preparations for this year’s event began last May for the Pittsburgh Steelers, which means the entirety of the process was conducted during the coronavirus pandemic. Meetings were held virtually. Attendance on college campus was limited to game days. The NFL Combine was canceled. “It’s been a real different, challenging...