The Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 4-2 with a thrilling overtime win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6. After a sluggish start, Pittsburgh came through in crunch time with several timely turnovers and a rookie receiver’s breakout performance.
As always, here is my weekly stock report from the Steelers’ first road victory of 2026.
Stock Up
CB Jamel Dean
Revenge does not get much sweeter than that. Dean came into the game banged up and left early in the contest for a drive, nursing his injury. The veteran corner ended up making the play of the day with a huge interception late in the first quarter that allowed the Steelers to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. The Steelers secondary looked much better when Dean was on the field compared to last week.
WRs DK Metcalf & Germie Bernard
Pittsburgh came into this contest with Michael Pittman Jr., Roman Wilson, and Ben Skowronek. Calling their receiver room thin today would be putting it nicely. However, both DK Metcalf and Germie Bernard stepped up hugely for the Steelers. Metcalf posted 11 receptions for 93 yards, coming up with a huge third-down conversion in overtime. Bernard’s first career touchdown came in overtime. It was his eleventh reception of the game. The rookie has emerged as a serious piece of the Steelers’ passing attack over the last few weeks, proving he is capable of handling a large volume of targets.
EDGE Nick Herbig
The Steelers edge rusher came into the contest with zero sacks through the team’s first five games. Herbig responded in a big way with two huge sacks in the contest. He was the Steelers’ most effective edge rusher in this contest. Anyone questioning the contract extension that Herbig received should be silenced after this performance.
DB Jalen Ramsey
The defensive back continues to play through a broken wrist. I mention that because you would not know anything is wrong with him based on the way he has been playing. Ramsey recorded two sacks today, as he was flying around the field all game long. The veteran continues to be a key piece of the Steelers’ defense.
Stock Down
Head coach Mike McCarthy
Not only did Mike McCarthy appear to sprain his ankle at the end of the first half, but there was also some curious late-game decision-making by McCarthy in this one. With the ball inside the five and Tampa Bay possessing two timeouts, the Steelers opted to throw the ball twice. This allowed Tampa Bay to keep one of their timeouts. Then, McCarthy opted to call a timeout with Tampa Bay running their field goal unit out onto the field. The timeout allowed Tampa Bay to properly set up their field goal unit and send the game to overtime. The Steelers won this game, so this is small potatoes at the end of the day. But I left with some questions about the way McCarthy elected to play the end of the game out.
Offensive Consistency/Play-calling
The Steelers’ offense looked sluggish for much of the first three quarters. Rodgers and the offense often passed from empty sets, a bit different from their usual under center and play action based passing offense we had become accustomed to seeing this season. The Steelers offense got it going from under center in the second half, and that small switch ended up being enough to help move Pittsburgh to 4-2 overall.
K Chris Boswell’s Consistency
Listen, it’s perfectly reasonable to talk about it. Boswell missed his fourth field goal of the season, this one from 48 yards out, in Week 6. There is some discourse online as to whether or not the laces were in the right place when Boswell kicked, but four misses this early in the year is notable. The kicker then got back on track as the game went on, nailing four consecutive field goals that proved to be crucial in seeing the game to overtime and eventually giving the Steelers the win. Boswell is not close to being replaced, but there is a conversation to be had about how much Boswell has missed this early in the season.
Special Teams
I actually came away from this one feeling pretty good about Kaden Wetjen. The rookie had several nice returns in the first half, both of which were called back for holding penalties. The Steelers special teams issues are becoming more noticeable each game it seems like. You can’t expect Wetjen to get any kind of positive momentum going if his returns are going to be called back because of his teammates.
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