A little over a month ago, ILB Myles Jack was happily retired from the game of football. Working on his pilot’s license, he also purchased the Allen Americans of the East Coast Hockey League, a minor league club that is an affiliate of the NHL Ottawa Senators. He had finished playing with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022 in disappointing fashion, his body breaking down in the second half of the season and his impact and role on the defense diminished immensely.
However, fate has a crazy way of making things work out sometimes. In the case of Jack, Pittsburgh called him after getting decimated at the inside linebacker with injuries, losing ILBs Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander for the season while having ILB Elandon Roberts dealing with a groin injury.
The Steelers signed Jack to their practice squad over a month ago, Jack going from moving on with life’s work to putting the pads back on for one more go-around. After seeing his first action of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday night, Jack said he is grateful for another chance to play the games he loves in front of the die-hard fans in Pittsburgh.
“They had a good plan of just getting me ready, getting me in shape, giving me free time,” Jack said to the media on video from Steelers.com. “Obviously, you never wanna see your guy go down, but I guess in essence, they was preparing me for a time when I would need to go in. Kudos to the training staff, Coach [Mike Tomlin] coming up with a plan, being patient with me, getting me in shape. Trying to get out there, getting midseason form coming off the couch. So, it was fun. It was fun. Definitely missed some opportunities, missed a couple plays, but I’ll get it right.”
Jack did miss a couple of plays Saturday night against the Bengals, notably missing his first tackle attempt and being a part of a couple coverage busts in the second half. However, Jack played valiantly in his return to Pittsburgh. After not playing football in nearly an entire calendar year, he posted six total tackles (three solo), one tackle for loss, a sack, and two quarterback hits in the Steelers’ 34-11 win. Jack was able to generate some splash in his first appearance of the season, getting to QB Jake Browning in the pocket, surpassing his quarterback hits and sack totals from all of last season.
With ILB Elandon Roberts suffering a pec injury that had him in a sling after the game, Pittsburgh will likely be relying on Jack more going forward as it continues to deal with attrition at the inside linebacker position. For now, Jack can relish coming back to Pittsburgh and making a positive impact. Helping this team overcome numerous injuries to get a much-needed win against the Bengals, he’ll look to help the Steelers make a late playoff push with two games left to play.
