The Pittsburgh Steelers brought back two core special teamers to the 53-man roster from the Reserve/Injured list over the weekend, with Tyler Matakevich and Ben Skowronek rejoining the team. To make room, S Terrell Edmunds and RB Jonathan Ward were both waived. According to the NFL transaction sheet, they have both cleared waivers and are available to sign with any team, including to the practice squad.
Unless another team has practice squad interest in them with a potentially clearer path to playing time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or both circle back to the practice squad in the coming days.
The running back room is currently well-stocked, with Cordarrelle Patterson back in the lineup for Week 10. There was a brief scare with Najee Harris and a possible injury, but he returned to the game. Ward offers special teams value with 59 snaps in the four games he played. Regarding running backs, Aaron Shampklin is already on the practice squad. I don’t know if there is a need to have both of them with all three primary running backs healthy.
As for Edmunds, he was a bit of a surprise waive to begin with. The former first-round pick was signed off the Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad early in the season. It is probably no coincidence that his exit from the team was at the same time as Cam Sutton’s return from suspension. Sutton is a jack of all trades in the secondary, similar to how they used Edmunds.
In five games played, Edmunds had 63 snaps on defense and 82 on special teams.
The secondary might need some more reshuffling, depending on Donte Jackson’s hamstring injury. If he needs to go to IR, he could be a 1:1 replacement with Cory Trice Jr. if he is ready to return.
