The Falcons’ trip to Pittsburgh got a lot trickier once Tua Tagovailoa was ruled out with an oblique injury, and now Atlanta has to open the season with Cooper Rush under center against Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.
That changes the whole shape of the game. Rush is making his first start for Atlanta, and the Falcons don’t need him to be a hero. They need him to keep the offense steady, avoid mistakes, and let the people around him do the heavy lifting.
That starts with Bijan Robinson.
Robinson should be the centerpiece from the first drive. Atlanta needs to run the ball, make Pittsburgh honor play-action, and find ways to get Robinson involved as a receiver out of the backfield. After another huge season in 2025 - 1,478 rushing yards and 820 receiving yards on 79 catches - he’s the kind of weapon who can take some of the pressure off a quarterback in his first Atlanta start.
The formula for Rush is pretty clear: distribute, don’t force, and stay on schedule. The Falcons can live with that as long as Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts are getting chances to make plays.
Rush’s past suggests he can handle a game like this if he doesn’t try to do too much. In 2022, he went 4-1 as Dallas’ starter, throwing for 1,051 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions. That kind of steady hand is exactly what Atlanta needs on Sunday.
But the preseason wasn’t perfect. Rush finished Atlanta’s three preseason games 30 of 48 for 254 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He did settle in against Indianapolis, going 10 of 11 for 86 yards, then followed that with a 13-of-18, 106-yard, one-touchdown performance against Miami.
Atlanta doesn’t need a big passing number from Rush. It needs clean football.
It needs manageable third downs. It needs the ball in the hands of the playmakers instead of in danger.
That matters even more because the Falcons’ defense did a pretty good job creating chaos last season. Atlanta forced 23 turnovers in 2025 while giving it away 18 times, and 16 of those takeaways came on interceptions. If Rush takes care of the ball and the defense can steal a possession or two, the Falcons can drag this into the kind of low-scoring game that suits them.
The pass rush will have to help, too, even with James Pearce Jr. and Jalon Walker unavailable. That puts more on Brandon Dorlus, Gervon Dexter, and LaCale London.
Dorlus had a breakout year with 8.5 sacks in 2025, and Atlanta’s defense as a whole finished with a franchise-record 57 sacks. That kind of interior pressure could be huge here, especially against a Pittsburgh offensive line that ranked second in the NFL in PFF pass-blocking efficiency at 88.8 last season, but also allowed 117 pressures and 17 sacks on 596 pass-blocking snaps. The unit has also changed a lot, with players moving into different roles.
If Atlanta can get pressure from the inside, it can make life harder on Rodgers before he has time to settle in and find DK Metcalf, Michael Pittman, and the rest of Pittsburgh’s weapons. Rodgers is still dangerous with a clean pocket, but he’s not the same runner he once was, and that gives Atlanta a lane if Dorlus, Dexter, and London can collapse things from the middle.
The Falcons are going to need a group effort to replace what Pearce and Walker would have brought. If they win the turnover battle, ride Robinson, and keep Rodgers uncomfortable, they’ve got a real shot to leave Pittsburgh with a win and start the Stefanski era on the right foot.
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The 2015 Steelers went 10-6, survived a wild card playoff game and then ran into Denver in the divisional round. Tomlin pointed to the talent on that roster and the injury issues that left them short-handed in the postseason loss, which only adds another layer to the what-if conversation around a team that was good enough to make people wonder how far it really could have gone. [Read more 🡒]
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Slaughter has not appeared in a regular-season game yet, but he did see significant preseason action, which at least gave the coaching staff a chance to evaluate him in something closer to game conditions. For a team already trying to sort out its opening-week lineup, the question now is less about whether Slaughter can dress and more about how much the Steelers might need him right away. [Read more 🡒]
Aaron Rodgers Just Created Another Steelers Headache Off The Field
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The reaction has only widened the gap between the two sides, with Woodleys friends pushing back on his account and describing the remarks as out of line with the person they knew. For Pittsburgh, it is the kind of headline that has little to do with game plans and everything to do with the attention that follows Rodgers wherever he goes, even when the conversation is supposed to be about football. [Read more 🡒]