Mike Tomlin‘s .500-or-better streak is facing perhaps its biggest threat yet. After the Steelers’ 38-3 loss to the Bills, they will be without nearly their entire starting secondary against the Buccaneers.
Pittsburgh ruled out Minkah Fitzpatrick with the knee injury he sustained in Buffalo and will also sit cornerbacks Cameron Sutton, Ahkello Witherspoon and Levi Wallace against Tampa Bay. Hamstring injuries will sideline Sutton and Witherspoon, while Wallace suffered a concussion against his former team. Starting safety Terrell Edmunds missed Week 5 with a concussion but practiced fully all week.
Since the Steelers acquired Fitzpatrick from the Dolphins in September 2019, they have only been without him in one game — due to COVID-19 last season. Fitzpatrick played 96% of Pittsburgh’s defensive snaps last week. The team rewarded its two-time All-Pro this summer with a four-year, $72.99MM extension. The team re-signed Witherspoon and added Wallace — each on low-cost contracts.
Sutton and Wallace played against the Bills, while Witherspoon will miss a third straight game. The team started Arthur Maulet in place of Witherspoon in Buffalo; James Pierre is the team’s only other healthy corner on the 53-man roster. Former second-round picks Josh Jackson and Quincy Wilson reside on Pittsburgh’s practice squad, which houses four corners. Duke Dawson and second-year UDFA Mark Gilbert are on that 16-man P-squad. Still, this creates quite the advantageous spot for Tom Brady and his receiving corps.
The Steelers rank 30th in total defense and 26th in points allowed. They started 1-3 last season and began 1-4 during Ben Roethlisberger‘s 2019 injury season but rallied back to .500-or-better marks in each year. The only season in which the Steelers sat four games under .500 during Tomlin’s tenure came in 2013, when the team rallied back to 8-8.
Missing 4/5 best secondary players against Tom Brady, who has historically cooked us. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, the Bills almost beat Miami with rookies and backups in every position on the secondary, so you never know.
While you are correct Sherminator, the Bills have one of the most talented/complete rosters in the league. The Steelers are a mess minus a few positions.
And friermuth is out too
Just in case anyone was wondering, they are left with Arthur Maulet, James Pierre, Josh Jackson and Mark Gilbert on the CB depth chart, plus maybe Damontae Kazee if they want to get creative.
In other words, if you thought the first half last Sunday was bad…
Funny thing is, D-line is still there, as are Bush and Spillane. Brady may throw for 400 and Fournette and company may run for a couple hundred more
This is one of those games you feel like putting $100 on the Steelers because, uh, there’s “no chance” they can win
Leal will also be out for Sunday so there goes DL depth
Great googily moogily…
No matter how bad things may get…don’t eat the yellow snow.
Still taking the under…. Lol
After watching the Pirates this year and the start of the Steelers train wreck, all I can think to say is, Let’s Go Pens
Your name makes me think of the Penguins roster.
penguins have 4 guys over 30 on the roster
Stan, I’ll take them winning 3/4 of their regular season games and the usual quick exit in the playoffs as compared to watching the Steelers or Pirates these days
it’s not like they’ve played bad in the playoffs.
if there’s any failure it’s to secure a veteran backup GK.
definitely think they beat Rangers last year if Jarry doesn’t break his ankle.. even Desmith may have got the job done with the pens offensive output.
Can’t win with Domingue letting pucks fly right past his glove
pens are washed up right bro?
is Tampa Bay washed up too?
cuz pens are owning them right now
Excuse me while I choose every Tampa WR for DraftKings this week. This is going to get ugly fast. Dropping Will Anderson into this defense next year looks better and better. Btw, Steelers fan here (the Bucs is for the Pirates).
They’re prob just gonna run the ball bro
Losing this week again, but now the defensive absences are too blame. Tomlin has his scapegoat to evade blame again.
Look, we get it. You don’t think much of Tomlin. That’s fine. I’m less enamored of him than I once was. But I don’t hear him pointing fingers or assigning scapegoats, recently or pretty much ever. Your issue here is with those who make excuses for him, not the man himself.
The real culprit here—and it may be more than one guy—is whomever assembled the personnel over the last couple years. There’s a real debate going on in town about how much control Tomlin has had over free agent signings and the draft but from a purely logical standpoint, it’s hard to fathom him not having a huge say-so
That said, I think Tomlin is a good coach and yet, he has had no draft of a Hines or Heath, a Faneca or a Polamalu. No, those players don’t grow on trees but it illustrates that something went haywire with the Steelers personnel department
I honestly think this is the worst Steelers team in the past 50 years. I honestly think that while they have some premiere players, the majority of guys here would start nowhere else
And I think there’s such a thing as being in a job for too long, to the point when guys are not hearing you anymore
Tomlin has always been a player’s coach. I get that. But Maulet’s words last weekend can’t be taken lightly. Maybe there’s more to the me-first garbage that routinely comes out of the mouths of guys like Johnson, Claypool and Bush
Yup. Colbert drafted for need and drafted with his heart which caused overdrafts and bad picks
if Tomlins a good coach, he should prove it somewhere else.
steelers fans are over his style of talk first act later..
the standard is the standard… what standard? this team is undisciplined and juvenile.
but hey, at least we got the cool coach right?
It’s funny to me how much Pittsburgh fans are so spoiled they want to get rid of a coach that every time a high profile job opens his name is immediately tied to it. I wonder why that is….
Well The Steelers have not won a playoff game since 2016, no other coach in the nfl has gone that long without a playoff win and still kept the job, next closes coach is Pete carrel who last won in 2017 and still has his job. It makes sense why people want Tomlin gone, even coaches who have had success have short leashes when the team stops playing well.
it’s funny to me how you don’t understand football and yet here we are with your 2 cents. the guy needs to go.
anyone who supports Dumblin at this point must be Fetterman voters
Don’t they say cornerbacks are wide outs who couldn’t catch? Diontae can play corner
Pittsburgh wasn’t competitive last week. This week will be no different.
The Steelers look like the worst team in the league. They need so much help so do you trade the 1st pick for multiple picks to a quarterback needy team or do you draft Will Anderson? I imagine the top 5 picks will be Anderson, Stroud, Young, Smith Ingibma and Harrison. Steelers need lineman on both sides