The Jig Is Up: Steelers Preseason, Week 2 vs. the Buccaneers

Recently I was thinking about my time writing about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Throughout my career doing so, I’ve essentially done it all.

Commentary, news, breaking stories, features and even took a stab at simple film room breakdowns.

The one thing I’ve never done is work on just a random thought type format.

I can’t speak for you, the reader, but I am always thinking about writing and the Steelers. Thinking about different aspects of the team and game. Thanks to reading Myron Cope’s biography I decided to put a unique spin on this type of feature.

Now, for the name of the article, anyone who is familiar with the Styx song “Renegade” should know where it came from. If not, this is where it came from…

The jig is up, the news is out
They finally found me
The renegade who had it made
Retrieved for a bounty
Nevermore to go astray
This’ll be the end today of the wanted man

The jig is up…time for some randomness.

Steelers defense gets a reality check

With training camp officially over, the Pittsburgh Steelers returned to the city for the duration of the 2025 season, and most notably the joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Acrisure Stadium Thursday. Ahead of their preseason tilt on Saturday, the Steelers defense was riding high after camp.

Players like Juan Thornill was stating it could be the best defense in the league. Jalen Ramsey was going on The Pivot podcast talking about the Steelers defense and his impending huge season.

Well, after the practice Thursday, the defense might have been given a reality check. Here are some of the reports coming out of the workout:

One quote that stood out to me was this from Brandin Echols, and I think it describes a good bit of what I saw out there today.

"We came out a little flat. Flatter than usual."

— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) August 14, 2025

Bucs WR Mike Evans couldn’t be covered during practice Thursday and won most of his battles with Steelers CB Jalen Ramsey. Todd Bowles has seen enough and won’t play him Sat.

— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) August 14, 2025

Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka said the Steelers ran a lot of zone coverage today against them, not as much man to man.

Called facing Jalen Ramsey ‘surreal.’

Egbuka confirmed the Bucs offense were successful on their two minute drive, with Baker Mayfield finding Evans against Ramsey.

— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) August 14, 2025

This doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world, or that the defense isn’t going to be good this year, but I don’t think it is a bad thing the defense might have put some not-so-great film on tape Thursday. Sometimes a reality check is good for the greater good.

Steelers Back-Ups Again

For the second straight week, the Steelers are resting all of the primary starters who aren’t on the offensive line. In case you missed the complete list:

ICYMI: The #Steelers who will, and won’t, play vs the Buccaneers Saturday night.

MORE: https://t.co/tf7dZCsQek

— Jeff Hartman (@JHartman_PIT) August 14, 2025

Some fans are upset about this, but something which was brought up during the livestream of the Steelers Preview podcast was the fact the Steelers might have their own plan…we just don’t know what that might be.

For instance, since the Steelers had a joint practice Thursday, is it possible the team will play their starters some next Thursday in Carolina before the over two week break before the regular season? They could, but, if I’m being honest, I don’t see it happening. Tomlin said Nick Herbig might play Saturday night, but I am prepared for the Steelers starters to not play at all during this 2025 preseason.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Starters Incoming

After the joint practice Todd Bowles met with media and talked about how the Buccaneers will have almost all of their starters in the lineup, the only exceptions being Mike Evans and Lavonte David.

Another test vs the opponents starters https://t.co/gun4IDD4Qj

— Jeff Hartman (@JHartman_PIT) August 14, 2025

However, later Thursday evening it was made public the Buccaneers changed their minds and after watching the practice film of Baker Mayfield they saw enough to not play him on Saturday.

After reviewing the tape of today’s practice, Todd Bowles just told me he believes Baker Mayfield played so well today in the joint workout with the Steelers he will NOT play in Saturday night’s game.

— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) August 15, 2025

Therefore, the Steelers won’t be seeing the Buccaneers QB1 and WR1 on Saturday night, instead they’ll be playing Kyle Trask and the Tampa Bay offense. While it isn’t quite the Buccaneers starters vs. the Steelers back-ups, it should be a good test for the black-and-gold.

Where did Training Camp go??

Where does the time go? It feels like just yesterday the Steelers were reporting to training camp in late July, and now it is done.

No more training camp reports.

No more public/open practices.

No more SCN trackers.

It makes me sad, because training camp is my favorite time of year. Nonetheless, the snowball has already started down the mountain and there’s no stopping it now. The preseason is almost 2/3 over, and before you know it we’ll be talking about the Steelers bye week in Week 5.

Where does the time go?

That's a wrap on #SteelersCamp ✅ @Acrisure pic.twitter.com/aWa7e7TN9m

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 13, 2025

Slow starting running game

The talk among reporters who were at the joint practice with the Steelers and Buccaneers was how the Steelers struggled to run the football. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, but here was a pretty good summation of multiple reports regarding the team’s failures to run the ball.

Steelers OL and RBs after practice commonly said they would like to have seen the run game have more success.

Frazier said the Bucs sent lots of blitzes and that threw a wrench in some things there.

— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) August 14, 2025

While I don’t think the Steelers running game will be bad all year, I do think it is going to be slow starting. This will put pressure on Aaron Rodgers and the passing game to open up the run, but at the same time I foresee the struggles being real for the running game early in the season. I really hope I’m wrong.

7 Shots Update

When you have a joint practice where the Steelers host, you get to see those awesome “7 Shots” periods between the two teams. For those who keep score at home, the Steelers offense dominated the Tampa Bay defense in the drill, but it was Tampa Bay offense who got the best of the Steelers defense in the drill.

Check out the run-down:

The seven shots periods today went as follows:

Steelers offense over Bucs defense 6-1 (via Pat Freiermuth)

Bucs offense over Steelers defense 4-3 (via Emeka Egbuka)

— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) August 14, 2025

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A picture is worth a thousand words

If you didn’t know, Ben Roethlisberger and his two sons were in attendance for the joint practice at Acrisure Stadium Thursday, and the Steelers social media crew got a great image of Aaron Rodgers and Roethlisberger together before practice began.

You can see it below:

8️⃣ ✖️ 7️⃣@AaronRodgers12 | @_BigBen7 pic.twitter.com/3eCdAE6LhZ

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 14, 2025

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I have to be honest I still find it crazy Rodgers is a member of the Steelers. What might be even more crazy is how Rodgers is only one year younger than Roethlisberger and is still in the league. They’ve always been built differently, and certainly played the position differently. Nonetheless, the hope is No. 8 can pull off a No. 7 and bring a 7th Lombardi trophy back to the city of Pittsburgh before he calls it a career.

Check out the latest “Let’s Ride” podcast in the player below:

That does it…the jig is up, they’ve finally found me. This renegade is outta here…be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they press on throughout the 2025 preseason.