For the second straight week, the Pittsburgh Steelers are choosing to dress only four true wide receivers. Rookie WR Roman Wilson remains inactive and won’t make his NFL debut this afternoon against the Indianapolis Colts. Like Week 3, the team only has four active WRs in George Pickens, Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, and Scotty Miller.
While it’s unusual for a team to dress only four, Cordarrelle Patterson will be used as a chess piece who can play running back, receiver, and returner. He figures to have a clear role in the Steeler’s game plan given that RB Jaylen Warren is out with a knee injury. That makes Patterson the No. 2 running back behind Najee Harris while he’s also likely to pick up a handful of snaps at wide receiver.
Patterson logged 23 offensive snaps in the Steelers’ Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers last week in part due to Warren’s injury and Van Jefferson missing most of the game due to an eye injury. Patterson finished with four rushes and three receptions. To date, he’s been more involved in the offense than he has as a kick returner.
The combination of touchbacks, teams kicking away from him, and a stingy Steelers defense simply not allowing many points that create kickoff opportunities has led Patterson not to return a kick through three weeks. The Steelers only have one, a short runback by Warren in Week 2 against the Denver Broncos. More opportunities could arise later this year when weather makes touchbacks harder to achieve.
Pittsburgh is going heavy in the secondary today. SS Terrell Edmunds and SS Jalen Elliott are active and should help on special teams, lightening the load for OLB Nick Herbig, who will make his first NFL start. EDGE DeMarvin Leal isn’t the multi-phase special teamer many No. 3/No. 4 outside linebackers are, though he does cover kicks, and the team opted against elevating a fourth outside linebacker for this game.
As Tomlin noted in his weekly conversation with Steelers.com’s Bob Labriola, Wilson is still catching up after missing nearly the entire summer with an ankle injury. He was injured during the first padded practice of training camp and didn’t play in the preseason.
