NFL · 1 hour ago

The Receiver with Running Back Mindset: Steelers Rookie Germie Bernard

Bo Marchionte

Host · Writer

GERMIE BERNARD’S BEST RECEIVER TRAIT WAS BUILT BEFORE HE WAS A RECEIVER

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – It appears Germie Bernard is on his way to contributing heavily to the Steelers in his rookie season.

He made his first touchdown of the preseason against the Buffalo Bills, his only target of the night but he made it special.

Bernard caught a pass from Will Howard coming out of the right side of the field.

His momentum carrying him towards daylight and with one defender to beat the internal instincts kicked in and that’s what his game is about.

Way backward.

Before Alabama. Before the NFL Draft. Before the Steelers made him a second-round pick.

Back to when Bernard was a kid playing running back and carrying the football often enough that avoiding the first guy became less of a skill and more of an instinct.

“Honestly, it’s just a lot of experience playing running back,” Bernard said. “When people are in certain positions, you know what to use and how to use it.”

That might be the simplest explanation yet for one of the most interesting pieces of Bernard’s game.

He catches the football like a receiver.

What happens next doesn’t always look like one.

Bernard scored his first touchdown of the preseason against Buffalo at Highmark Stadium, another step in what has quietly become a productive August for Pittsburgh’s rookie receiver.

The numbers are nice.

The way Bernard talks about creating them is better.

“I played running back for a very long time in my childhood,” Bernard said. “I always had the ball in my hand, so it just came from that, and it just always translated.”

There it is.

Run after catch gets tossed around so casually in football that it has practically become wallpaper. Every receiver wants YAC. Every offense wants guys who can create it.

Bernard understands the mechanics underneath it.

Where is the defender coming from? What leverage does he have? What can Bernard use against him?

The Running Back Within

That’s running-back thinking happening inside a receiver’s body.

It also helps explain why the Deebo Samuel comparisons followed Bernard through the draft process. The comparison isn’t about pretending Bernard is Samuel 2.0. It’s about the shared utility of a player who becomes something different once possession is established.

The catch isn’t necessarily the finish.

Sometimes it’s the handoff.

Bernard knew that was one of his selling points long before Pittsburgh drafted him.

“Even throughout the draft process, when everybody asks, ‘What’s my strength?’ I always say my run after catch,” Bernard said. “I was able to showcase that throughout these past few games.”

Bernard’s job isn’t simply to prove he can catch five balls for 74 yards during the preseason. It shows Mike McCarthy and the Steelers that when the regular-season roster gets smaller, the playbook doesn’t necessarily have to shrink with it.

Get him the football underneath.

Let him work across the formation.

Find him in space.

Give him a chance to turn an ordinary completion into something extraordinary.

“I get to showcase my abilities,” Bernard said. “I get to showcase and show everybody what I have.”

Thursday night, he finally added the touchdown.

It was the way he scored that encompasses what the Steelers saw in their second round selection.

Preseason Numbers