DERRICK HARMON
Defensive End
For the second straight week, many of the Steelers' marquee defensive players were not in uniform. T.J. Watt, Jalen Ramsey, Patrick Queen, Darius Slay, Joey Porter Jr., DeShon Elliott, Alex Highsmith, and Cam Heyward all watched from the sideline.
All of those guys will be counted upon to play significant roles once the regular season opens on Sept. 7. One player who is too young and inexperienced to be afforded that treatment but who also will be counted upon come the start of the regular season is DE Derrick Harmon.
In his first game at Acrisure Stadium, Harmon had 3 tackles and recorded his first sack, which also happened to be the Steelers' first sack of this preseason, in a 17-14 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday night.
Harmon is the Steelers Digest Player of the Week.
Also considered were ILB Cole Holcomb, who had 4 tackles; RB Kaleb Johnson, who had 11 carries for 50 yards (4.5 average) and 1 catch for 9 yards; WR Roman Wilson who caught 2 passes for 72 yards; OLB Eku Leota, who had 4 tackles, including 2 tackles for loss, and 1 hit on the quarterback; WR Brandon Johnson, who caught 3 passes for 16 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown, and had 2 special teams tackles; CB Brandin Echols, who had 2 tackles and a pass defensed; and RB Lew Nichols, who had 3 carries for 42 yards.
