PITTSBURGH — The Steelers are getting one of their star defenders back for Sunday’s game against the Saints, but they unexpectedly lost another when Minkah Fitzpatrick was ruled out due to appendicitis.
It’s more bad injury luck for the Steelers, who have dealt with an inordinate number of injuries on defense this season. They’ll also be without cornerbacks Ahkello Witherspoon and William Jackson against the Saints.
The Steelers placed Jackson on injured reserve on Saturday to make room for linebacker T.J. Watt. The Steelers traded for Jackson last Tuesday. He practiced with the team a day later, but he did not practice Wednesday, Thursday or Friday this week.
Now that Jackson has been placed on injured reserve the compensation to acquire Jackson (a swap of late-round draft choices in 2025) is now voided because it was conditional on a number of games Jackson had to play this season with the Steelers.
Jackson missed four games while he was with the Commanders earlier this season with the same back injury, but Steelers coach Mike Tomlin downplayed the injury when he was asked about it last week..
“He’s fine,” Tomlin said. “It was insignificant in terms of the transaction, so it’s a non-factor. He worked today.”
According to sources, the back injury is not expected to shelve Jackson for the remainder of the season, but he won’t be eligible to return until the Dec. 11 game against the Ravens.
The Steelers will be forced to reconfigure their defense without Fitzpatrick. They were set to use their big nickel package with safeties Fitzpatrick, Terrell Edmunds and Damonte Kazee after Kazee was cleared to play this week after an arm injury forced him to miss the first eight games of the season.
Kazee is likely to replace Fitzpatrick in the starting lineup. The Steelers elevated Elijah Riley from the practice squad to the 53-man roster for added safety depth. The Steelers also have Tre Norwood at safety.
