{"id":96490,"date":"2025-09-21T16:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=96490"},"modified":"2025-09-21T16:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:50:11","slug":"derrick-harmons-big-moment-steelers-rookie-set-to-ignite-nfl-debut-vs-patriots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=96490","title":{"rendered":"Derrick Harmon\u2019s Big Moment: Steelers\u2019 Rookie Set to Ignite NFL Debut vs. Patriots"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.clutchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Harmon-during-preseason.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Derrick Harmon (99) rushes the passer against the Jacksonville Jaguars during a preseason game at EverBank Stadium\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers will hit the road to take on the New England Patriots, looking to pick up their second win of the 2025 NFL season thus far. While Aaron Rodgers and the offense have looked decent through two weeks, the Steelers&#8217; defense hasn&#8217;t been very good, especially not against the run.<\/p>\n<p>Before Sunday&#8217;s game in New England, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin made an adjustment to try to change that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c#Steelers first-round pick DL Derrick Harmon is active for the first time this season against the #Patriots,\u201d reported NFL insider Tom Pelissero on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Harmon played his college football at both Michigan State and Oregon and was selected by the Steelers in the first round of the NFL Draft, as Pelissero mentioned in his report.<\/p>\n<p>While Harmon played well in the preseason for the Steelers, he has yet to take part in a regular season game\u2013at least, up until Sunday that is.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, fans in the comment section under Pelissero&#8217;s post were ecstatic, to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYES,\u201d wrote one fan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLETS GOOOOOOO (the patriots will now have 190 rushing yards and not 200),\u201d joked another.<\/p>\n<p>Heading into this season, not many pundits expected it to be the Steelers&#8217; defense, not their offense, holding them back from being truly successful.<\/p>\n<p>However, through two weeks of the 2025 NFL season, that has been the case so far, as Aaron Rodgers appears to have at least somewhat turned back the clock to some version of his old self, while the Steelers&#8217; collection of veteran talent on defense have performed vastly below expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Sunday&#8217;s infusion of youth into the lineup will help make a difference in that department.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, the Steelers and Patriots are slated to kick things off from New England at 1:00 PM ET.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers will be activating their first round draft pick from this year ahead of Sunday&#8217;s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3758,9,27],"class_list":["post-96490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-derrick-harmon","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - 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