Steelers solved depth issues with pair of trades

Pittsburgh acquired outside linebacker Malik Reed from the Denver Broncos along with a seventh-round draft pick for a sixth-round pick. Then, it shipped a conditional seventh-round pick in 2025 to the Minnesota Vikings for offensive lineman Jesse Davis.

In Reed, the Steelers acquired a good young pass rusher who has 13 sacks over the last two seasons. Given their complete lack of competent depth behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, that’s a huge move.

Davis, meanwhile, started 72 games over the previous five seasons for the Miami Dolphins before signing a one-year, $3-million contract with the Vikings. And he started at every offensive line spot except center.

Davis is exactly what you’re looking for in a sixth offensive lineman.

Both players greatly improve this team’s depth.

Last I checked, John Hannah and another T.J. Watt were not available. But having guys who have started a lot of games coming off your bench has value.

• Plenty of people are already panicking about the Steelers’ offensive line.

Sorry, but it’s way too early to do that. The Steelers haven’t even played a game that matters yet. They haven’t schemed anything.

In the preseason, you leave every one of your linemen on an island to see if they’re capable of handling one-on-one blocks and communicating on blitzes. Once the season starts, the coaching staff will make the adjustments it needs to block things properly.

But you don’t know who might need help on certain things, and who will not, if you don’t test that out in the preseason.

Second-year tackle Dan Moore has had his issues in the preseason. The Steelers now know that they’ll likely have to help him in certain situations.

The rest of the line got better as the preseason wore on. And that’s the hope for this group. It will continue to get better with each week.

• I’m not sure I understand the disconnect between how the Steelers’ quarterbacks played in the preseason and the questions nationally about them.

As a group, Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph completed over 70 percent of its passes for 764 yards and seven touchdowns with no interceptions. That works out to a passer rating of 113.1.

And it didn’t seem to matter which quarterback was in the game or who he was out there with. They all had success.

The Steelers’ weapons are good enough that whether their quarterback is Trubisky or Pickett – and it will be Trubisky to start the season – he should have success.

• If there’s any bright spot to come out of this season for the Pirates – and there aren’t many – it’s that they’ve at least found two starting pitchers.

Mitch Keller seems to have figured things out. He’s been consistent over the past two months after a rough start to the season. He now looks like a solid middle-of-the-rotation pitcher.

Rookie Roansy Contreras looks like he has the potential to be a staff ace.

• How bad has it been for the Pirates at the plate this season?

Realize that Aaron Judge of the Yankees has 51 home runs to lead Major League Baseball. Going into Friday’s game, the Pirates’ leader in RBI was Bryan Reynolds with 48.

Now, Reynolds missed some time, but the Pirates have only three players with more than 40 RBI.

• If Thursday night’s Backyard Brawl didn’t show why Pitt and West Virginia should play every year, then I don’t know what you were watching.

Acrisure Stadium was rocking. Both schools showed up and played well.

And it gave Pittsburgh an opportunity to put itself on display with ESPN’s College Game Day coming to the city for the event.

This game was the first Backyard Brawl since 2011. And in 2015, the two schools agreed to play from 2022 through 2025. After seeing how this game was played and the intensity of the competition Thursday night, both schools should immediately agree to play the game every year.

There are few things better than rivalries in sports.