Even with one practice squad elevation, the Pittsburgh Steelers still operated with a 52-man roster on Monday against the Cleveland Browns—albeit with the maximum allowed players active for the game. That was because they placed two players on the Reserve/Injured List in the hours leading up to kickoff.
They filled those roster spots on Wednesday, promoting NT Breiden Fehoko from the practice squad for one. For the other, they brought in a player from the outside who has some familiarity with the Steelers-as an opponent.
That would be Godwin Igwebuike, a running back who is now on his fourth team since August 2022. Cut then by the Detroit Lions, he played for the Seattle Seahawks last season before signing with the Atlanta Falcons in July. Pittsburgh just signed him off Atlanta’s practice squad, but it’s what he did as a Lion he remembers most.
I’ll just let you watch the clip for yourself, but I’ll warn you, in case you don’t remember: it wasn’t pretty.
“That was fun. Hopefully I can do that with the Steelers jersey”, he told Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The Steelers hope so, as well, though in all likelihood they brought him in primarily to serve as a kick returner with Anthony McFarland Jr. on the Reserve/injured List and Gunner Olszewski on the Reserve/Incompetent List.
The Steelers awarded McFarland the starting kick returner job, and he performed admirably in the season opener, but at some point along the way suffered a knee injury. He was one of the aforementioned players above who were placed on IR hours before Monday’s game, so he’ll have to miss at least the next three games.
Godwin has a career 25.8-yard kick return average on 39 kick returns over the past two seasons, both with the Seahawks and the Lions, with a long of 50 yards. For perspective, while the Steelers did get an 89-yard kick return out of Steven Sims last you, you would have to go back to 2017 to find the last return of 50-plus yards before that.
It’s not just returns, however. Igwebuike contributes in all areas on special teams, and hopes to get opportunities to play on offense as well. “I’d like to consider myself being the full package”, he said. “Definitely a hard runner, gonna hit the hole, able to make guys miss and finish with speed. Excited to be here, especially of course for special teams as well. I feel like I can contribute being a ‘core four’ guy, and being able to take kickoff returns as well. So wherever they might have me, I’ll play. I definitely feel like I have a lot to contribute”.
The Steelers could use all the help they can get when it comes to having success running the ball. They haven’t even done it much so far through two games, but it seems most of their success in that phase has been unscripted. And without McFarland this week, they looked like they could use another kick returner as well.
