David Bailey is officially on the board.
The highly-touted first-round pick had a pretty quiet first preseason showing against the Bucs, but he was able to make his presence felt early in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.
With the Steelers lining up for a third-and-eight on the brink of field goal range, Bailey flew past OT Broderick Jones and brought down QB Will Howard for an 11-yard loss.
It was (unofficially) the first of what figures to be many sacks in his NFL career.
“It felt amazing, it was a sense of relief,” Bailey told Brian Costello of the NY Post postgame. “It felt good knowing that my interior line did their job and the coverage did their job and just allowed me to capitalize.”
Bailey brings some lofty expectations after landing with Gang Green as the No. 2 overall pick in this year's draft.
He’s been able to live up to those thus far against teammates in camp and opponents in joint practices, and finally put it on display in live game action on Saturday night.
The 22-year-old also logged a pair of QB pressures in his 12 total snaps.
“It was good to see,” head coach Aaron Glenn said. “Obviously we know what he can do as a pass rusher, I already see in my head that there’s a couple of things that he has to improve on that showed up in the game, and he will.”
Bailey racked up a whopping 14.5 sacks and 19.5 TFL's during his All-American senior season with the Red Raiders.
He’ll look to bring that type of impact now rushing off the edge of New York’s defense.
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