The Pittsburgh Steelers could potentially be without their top two linebackers and their top three safeties when they play the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday. That’s unlikely, since I don’t imagine S Damontae Kazee will get suspended for the hit that caused him to be ejected from the last game, but the rest is either possible, probable, or already assured.
ILBs Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander have already been lost for the season for several weeks now. S Minkah Fitzpatrick only fairly recently returned from a four-game absence due to a hamstring injury. In the midst of that, S Keanu Neal went down as well. He is on the Reserve/Injured List and eligible to return to practice, but as of yet, has not.
“We’ve got some attrition going on in the interior portions of our defense at linebacker and safety, so we’ve got to assess that”, head coach Mike Tomlin said following his team’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday. Kazee was ejected on one play and Fitzpatrick injured his knee on the next when CB Patrick Peterson fell on him.
And for the rest of the game, they very much looked like a defense playing with second or third options throughout the middle of the defense. No disrespect to DL Keeanu Benton and ILB Elandon Roberts, who have been two of the Steelers’ best players on defense all season, but the interior is just too thin right now and they’re being gutted.
What can they do? Not much, when it comes to safety, beyond hoping that Fitzpatrick is okay. Kazee, as I mentioned, should be available as well, and perhaps Neal will even return this week. They could be at full health there, in actuality, with Trenton Thompson rising in the ranks during their injuries.
But inside linebacker is another matter. Roberts is still there, but Mykal Walker and Mark Robinson are not proving up to the tasks set before them. Blake Martinez could get another shot after being inactive last week, and Myles Jack is still on the practice squad, but we might be shuffling chairs on the deck of the Titanic at this point.
Those were Tomlin’s words on Saturday night after his defense was just embarrassed by the Colts, blowing a 13-point lead by allowing 30 unanswered. A trio of offensive turnovers didn’t help, but none of those points were scored by the Indianapolis defense, and the fact of the matter is that they have allowed nine touchdowns over the past three games.
This entire season has felt like attrition. Not unlike the 2020 season in which they began the year on an 11-game winning streak, the fall always felt inevitable. They were punching above their weight before now, and their defense has only gotten thinner in the ensuing weeks. At this point we have to ask: how much meat is left on their bones?
