{"id":261747,"date":"2026-08-08T18:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261747\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:50:15","slug":"steelers-new-veteran-wr-is-breaking-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/261747\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers New Veteran WR is Breaking Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"90\">Michael Pittman Jr. is finally settling into a groove with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/steelers\/onsi\/pittsburgh-steelers-add-former-seahawks-lance-mason-waivers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, and his uptick when it comes to his involvement in the team&#8217;s offense in training camp proves that.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"93\">When it comes to playing alongside Aaron Rodgers, one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, Pittman Jr. stated that he&#8217;s simply trying to play up to his standards by matching him.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"96\">&#8220;Obviously Aaron is one of the best to ever play, so I&#8217;m just trying to match him,&#8221; Pittman Jr. said. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"99\">Pittman Jr. went on to state that generating a stronger connection in his first year working with Rodgers is a matter of putting in more work and building on it as time goes on.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9c\">&#8220;We&#8217;re trying to get in as many reps as possible, so that&#8217;s why I kinda started out slow and you&#8217;re seeing it ramp up more and more,&#8221; Pittman Jr. said. &#8220;Looking to build on that, and just keep going I guess.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/01kzf8ctaw57ewjkqjy7.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr\" title=\"Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr\" width=\"360\" height=\"240\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"9m\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Aug 03, 2026; Latrobe, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr (11) looks to avoid cornerback Daylen Everette (23) during a practice session at Training camp at Saint Vincent College. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Can Pittman Jr. Have a Career Year in Pittsburgh?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9t\">From the moment Pittman Jr. arrived in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/steelers\/onsi\/drew-allar-passing-first-test-pittsburgh-steelers-training-camp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Pittsburgh<\/a>, even when considering his three-year, $59 million extension, it was known he was going to slot in as the team&#8217;s No. 2 option at receiver next to DK Metcalf.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9w\">Pittman Jr. was the Indianapolis Colts&#8217; No. 1 receiver for a number of years though, surpassing the 1,000-yard total in both 2021 and 2023, so he knows what it&#8217;s like to garner that extra attention and a boatload of targets.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9z\">There are quite a few mouths to feed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/steelers\/onsi\/pittsburgh-steelers-give-updates-two-key-injuries\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Steelers<\/a>&#8216; offense, but Pittman Jr. believes a change of scenery and Mike McCarthy&#8217;s system could help unlock some of his potential that the Colts failed to capitalize in towards the end of his tenure with the team.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a2\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t mind being a possession receiver, &#8217;cause that means I get lots of targets,&#8221; Pittman Jr said. &#8220;I think that I could be more. Obviously that&#8217;s why I was kind of looking for a change of scenery. I feel like I fell into a role, I felt like I had much more to give. So I came here, tried to be part of this offense that likes to stretch the field and we have lots of guys, we&#8217;re gonna run lots of downfield concepts. I think that fits into my route tree more, so it doesn&#8217;t get so like stagnant with that underneath stuff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a5\">As far as WR2s go, there aren&#8217;t a ton out there better than Pittman Jr. If he proves to be as strong of a fit in Pittsburgh as he believes to be, he could do a ton of damage catching passes from Rodgers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a8\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/steelers\/onsi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Make sure to bookmark Steelers On SI,\u00a0and find our podcast All Steelers Talk on YouTube\u00a0or anywhere you listen!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Pittman Jr. is finally settling into a groove with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and his uptick when it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-261747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}