With P Pressley Harvin III out for Sunday’s Week Four matchup with the Houston Texans due to a hamstring injury, the Steelers officially elevated P Brad Wing from the practice squad, the team announced today.
He’ll serve as the team’s punter on Sunday. The move was expected after Harvin was ruled out yesterday and was unable to practice all week.
Wing hasn’t punted in the NFL since 2017 with the New York Giants, but he had a good showing in the XFL with the Hines Ward-led San Antonio Brahmas, and he’ll have a shot to impress on Sunday in Harvin’s stead. He averaged 44.7 yards per punt with 100 career punts inside the 20 during a four-year NFL career from 2014-2017, and he spent the 2014 season with the Steelers. He can potentially revitalize his career with a good performance on Sunday, and he has a recent history of success, averaging 47.9 yards per punt with the Brahmas.
Steelers communication manager Michael Bertsch passed along that Wing will have gone 2,100 days, or five years, nine months and one day between NFL appearances.
He thanked the Steelers organization and Ward for giving him another shot at keeping his football dreams alive.
Harvin’s had an NFL-high 19 punts and 897 total yards through three games. He was averaging a career-high 47.2 yards per punt.
Wing is just the second player the Steelers have activated through four weeks, with RB Qadree Ollison being the first. Harvin is coming off a string of back-to-back solid performances, and Wing will look to keep that momentum going on Sunday.
With the Steelers just elevating Wing and not RB Qadree Ollison, Connor Heyward will serve as Pittsburgh’s RB3 on Sunday. The team had elevated Ollison each of the last two weeks but chose not to ahead of their matchup with the Texans. It will be Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren ahead of Heyward in the backfield, but I wouldn’t expect Heyward to get a ton of work.
