The Pittsburgh Steelers lost two starting inside linebackers earlier this month in a two-game span. While Elandon Roberts’ presence softened the blow significantly, that still left a major hole they needed to find a way to address midseason.
They did so by turning to a pair of veteran former starting linebackers who were at different chapters in their lives. Partly due to the effects that injuries had on their career opportunities and their bodies, both Blake Martinez and Myles Jack had retired within the past year before reversing course in recent weeks.
Jack elected to step away in August, but when the opportunity came to return to the Steelers following his release earlier this offseason, he took it. While he’d decided to retire, however, he hadn’t decided to stop putting in the work. By the sounds of his comments this week, he feels like he could probably play on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I’d say about 80 percent there”, he told reporters on Wednesday, via the team’s website, when asked to approximate his current football conditioning. “I’m gonna try to get it to 90 tomorrow and be 100 by Friday, but we’ll see what their plan is for me. But I’m trying to expedite the whole process and get back because it’s not like I’ve been sitting down this whole time. I’ve been working out”.
A 2016 second-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jack spent the first six years of his career there. As injuries increasingly affected his availability and performance, however, he was released ahead of the 2022 season. Pittsburgh pounced and picked him up on a two-year, $16 million contract to plug into the starting lineup.
Everything began well enough, to be sure. He was playing solid, efficient football, registering 44 tackles over the first four games. It was around the middle of the season that the injury bug bit him. He told reporters that he had surgery during the year and then, in the process of coming back, tore his groin.
While not the perfect player by any stretch of the imagination, that does help explain why his play really fell off in the second half of the year in comparison to how he was playing earlier on. It might also help explain Robert Spillane taking on an increasingly large role in coverage as the season progressed.
While Jack may be back and healthy and working his way all the way into football shape in the near future, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are immediate plans for him. The Steelers already have four inside linebackers on their 53-man roster, including Mykal Walker, who started and played most of their last game.
Might they decide that they view Jack as the better starting candidate over Walker? Perhaps, in a week or two, though I wouldn’t think he’ll be activated to the 53-man roster so quickly. He may be elevated from the practice squad, however, just to dress, because of his familiarity with the system over Martinez, who is actually on the roster.
