Germie Bernard
Germie Bernard
Heading into the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first preseason game on Thursday night, the quarterbacks were the talk of the town. How would Will Howard and Drew Allar do in their first action with the Steelers? Quite well, it turns out. However, they weren’t the only bright spots on offense. Rookie WR Germie Bernard had a satisfactory debut in Pittsburgh as well.
Bernard caught four passes for 51 yards while running with the Steelers’ starting unit and QB Mason Rudolph. His performance caught analyst Ryan Wilson’s attention. He named Bernard his biggest winner when he joined CBS Sports HQ on Friday.
“There have been some concerns in training camp…about him coming along as quickly as perhaps they wanted him to…” Wilson said. “But I think Germie Bernard’s really making his case from what we saw last night to get on the field as the number three… Good first start for him. And if he can get Aaron Rodgers on his side, that’s even better news, because we know how Aaron is hard on rookies. If Germie is where he’s supposed to be in terms of [route] running…he will be on the field sooner rather than later.”
Going into Thursday night’s game, the consensus was that WR Roman Wilson was the number-three wide receiver. In the words of beat writer Ray Fittipaldo, “It’s Roman Wilson by a mile.”
However, Germie Bernard made some noise in his first preseason action with the Steelers. His biggest catch of the night featured him taking a short pass and bullying his way through a tackle attempt to gain 25 yards. 23 of those yards came after the catch, and 17 yards came after contact.
Big gains from the rook 💨 @oti_germie
📺: #GBvsPIT on KDKA pic.twitter.com/9ucGqlzIqr
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 13, 2026
Rudolph praised Bernard after the game, invoking a famous line from former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin: “He didn’t blink.” Yes, it was only preseason, but that was Bernard’s first time playing against another NFL team. That is a big deal, and he rose to the occasion.
Despite the talk that Bernard was behind Wilson, the Steelers had a positive view of the former’s training camp. Offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio likes what he’s seen from Bernard, including learning multiple spots. Perhaps Bernard was behind Wilson because he’s been methodical in learning the nuances of each wide receiver position.
As for Aaron Rodgers, he’s also bullish on Germie Bernard. However, it’s one thing for Rodgers to be happy with Bernard in practice. We will see how that goes once Week 1 rolls around and everything counts.
But for the moment, Germie Bernard responded quite well in his first action in Pittsburgh. That’s promising.