September 19, 2025 -

Season 16, Episode 26 of The Terrible Podcast is now in the can. In this Friday morning episode, Alex Kozora and I get right to talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers as they prepare for their Week 3 road game against the New England Patriots.

Alex and I start by discussing the Steelers and Patriots' injury reports. We talk about Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. seemingly being doubtful for Sunday with his hamstring injury and how the status of rookie DT Derrick Harmon making his NFL debut against the Patriots seems questionable entering Friday. We also discuss the knee injury sustained this past week by backup OL Max Scharping and how he'll likely be headed to the Reserve/Injured list soon.

Will the Steelers' new practice squad ILB Ja'Whaun Bentley be elevated on Saturday and then play against the Patriots on Sunday? We explain how that seems a little unlikely based on things that have been said this past week.

The Patriots are looking to get CB Christian Gonzalez back from his hamstring injury this week so Alex and I discuss his status headed into Friday as well.

On Thursday, we heard from two of the Steelers' coordinators, Arthur Smith and Teryl Austin, so Alex and I recap the main talking points to come out of those media sessions. We discuss Austin being fired up about his defense giving up a duplicate explosive passing play for a touchdown in consecutive weeks. We also go over communication comments made by Austin on Thursday and a few other minor things that Smith had to say to the media during his weekly session. The main one being that Steelers RB Jaylen Warren might get might touches on Sunday against the Patriots.

Alex and I welcome Ben Volin of The Boston Globe back to the show, and he helps us get started with a preview of the Steelers’ road game against the Patriots. Volin has covered the Patriots for several seasons, and nobody knows that team better than he does. We get his thoughts on new Patriots HC Mike Vrabel and second-year QB Drake Maye and many more things related to Sunday’s game at Gillette Stadium. At the end of our talk with Volin, he gives us his score prediction for the game between the Steelers and the Patriots.

If not already doing so, make sure to follow Ben on X/Twitter at @BenVolin and make sure to read his work here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/about/staff-list/staff/ben-volin/

After finishing with Volin, Alex and I provide our own preview of the game between the Steelers and the Patriots. We break down what we are looking for out of each team on both sides of the football ahead of the Week 3 game.

Alex and I then give our picks against the spread for all of the Week 3 games in the NFL using the line provided by show sponsor MyBookie.ag. We also give our score predictions for Steelers-Patriots to end that segment.

This 125-minute episode also discusses several other minor topics not noted, and we close things by answering a few emails that we recently received from listeners.

steelersdepot.com

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