The Pittsburgh Steelers have elevated LB Tariq Carpenter from the practice squad to the Active/Inactive roster ahead of Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the team announced Saturday afternoon.
Carpenter will provide inside linebacker depth after the team has suffered multiple season-ending injuries over the past few weeks. First, the team lost Cole Holcomb for the season due to a knee injury before Kwon Alexander went down for a season-ending Achilles tear the following week.
Pittsburgh has reshuffled its inside linebacker room in recent weeks. The team signed LB Mykal Walker to the practice squad early in November before signing him to the 53-man roster. He played the majority of the snaps in last Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Browns, recording two tackles, and receiving praise from DC Teryl Austin.
Earlier this week, the Steelers also signed veteran ILB Blake Martinez to the 53-man roster off the Carolina Panthers practice squad while bringing back recently retired LB Myles Jack to the practice squad. Jack will remain there until he gets back into football shape. Both players began the 2023 retired before working their way back into the league.
A seventh round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2022, Carpenter has appeared in two games for the Steelers this season. He’s logged 21 snaps on special teams, recording one tackle. A former safety at Georgia Tech, he converted to LB while with the Packers.
In his two-year NFL career, Carpenter has appeared in 16 games, recording nine total tackles. With Carpenter elevated and likely to dress, we’ll see who the Steelers six inactive players will be tomorrow and if an inside linebacker will be one of them. Given how new he is to the team, it could be Martinez. Of course, the team seems low on Mark Robinson and it can’t be ruled out that he doesn’t dress either.
