The Pittsburgh Steelers are playing without four starters on defense, their inside linebackers and safeties sidelined. At least, they could continue to be without their top players at the position. S Minkah Fitzpatrick finished the week as questionable after practicing twice on a limited basis.
It is unclear whether he is more or less likely to play after suffering a knee injury in the loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Not even the man who has replaced him in the starting lineup knows for sure, that being veteran Eric Rowe.
“I know he’s fighting with his knee”, he told Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “He’s fighting with it. I mean, if he don’t know, I don’t know”, he added, regarding his playing status. Still, he told the reporter that he will “have the same role” as the last two weeks, that being a starter. “I know we have injuries and stuff, but I’ll still be out there”.
A ninth-year veteran, Rowe had always been a significant contributor if not a full-time starter before this season. He has spent all year on practice squads, including even now on the Steelers’, but he has been elevated to play the past two games. He’ll no doubt be elevated to play in the finale as well.
Players on the practice squad may be placed on the active roster via the standard elevation process three times during the regular season. It allows teams to dress a player without signing him to the official 53-man roster and then releasing him and subjecting him to waivers after the game, instead reverting back to the practice squad automatically.
The limitations on practice squad elevations are scrapped during the postseason, so it wouldn’t matter for Rowe if he were not signed to the 53-man roster. At the same time, if the Steelers do advance, they will also be getting Damontae Kazee back from a three-game suspension, and he presumably would start over Rowe.
Without both Fitzpatrick and Kazee (and Keanu Neal), it has been CB Patrick Peterson starting next to Rowe at safety. On the whole, the makeshift duo has held up commendably, especially from a communication perspective, duties that have largely fallen to Peterson.
Although he was named to the Pro Bowl, the 2023 season has not been Fitzpatrick’s best at all. Just a year after leading the NFL in interceptions, he enters a season finale in which he may not even play having failed to register even a single takeaway. Zero interceptions, zero forced fumbles, zero fumble recoveries.
He has been limited to 10 games due to multiple injuries, the knee injury only being the latest. He also missed four games earlier in the season due to a hamstring injury, and then injured a finger in his first game back, for which he did not miss time.
