Pittsburgh Steelers OL Max Scharping has suffered a torn ACL that will cause him to miss the rest of the 2025 season, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Rapoport reported Wednesday night that Scharping was feared to have suffered a serious injury during practice yesterday. Pittsburgh listed him as “limited” on the injury report due to a knee injury, a sign the injury occurred while he was practicing.
Though not yet official, Pittsburgh will soon place Scharping on season-ending injured reserve. That will create an open spot on the team’s 53-man roster. With nine healthy offensive linemen on the roster, the Steelers may choose to address his spot with another position. However, the team could look to sign a third-string center to the practice squad. With Scharping lost, the team is without a third teamer to take practice reps.
Scharping did not dress in the Steelers’ first two games of the season. A reserve center/guard, he worked second-team center throughout much of training camp and the preseason. Signing with the team in October 2024 off the Washington Commanders’ practice squad, he appeared in two games for Pittsburgh last season, logging only a handful of offensive snaps. Pittsburgh re-signed him to a one-year deal in the offseason.
Released in late August during the team’s final cutdowns, Pittsburgh brought him back to the 53-man roster after moving rookie QB Will Howard and rookie CB Donte Kent to injured reserve.
A second-round pick of the Houston Texans in 2019, Scharping has appeared in 81 NFL games with 33 starts. He hadn’t started a game since 2021 and has spent the last several years as a backup in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
Scharping’s focus the rest of the year will be getting healthy and attempting to land in a training camp next summer.
Scharping is the first major offensive line injury the Steelers have suffered this season. Remaining backups on the 53-man roster are Calvin Anderson, Spencer Anderson, Ryan McCollum, and Andrus Peat.
