Daniel Ekuale - Pro Football Rumors

Steelers DT Daniel Ekuale Suspended Five Games

November 25th, 2025 at 9:05pm CST by Ben Levine

Daniel Ekuale was already out for the season, but now the Steelers defensive tackle will have to forego a paycheck over the next five weeks. That’s because Ekuale was slapped with a five-game suspension today, per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Ekuale earned his temporary ban for violating the league’s Performance-Enhancing Substances Policy, per Dulac. This represents the third suspension of the player’s career; Ekuale earned a four-game ban in 2018 and a two-game suspension in 2022 for the same violation.

The Washington State product bounced around the NFL a bit to begin his career before finding a home in New England. He spent four seasons with the Patriots, but he didn’t emerge as a key player until 2024. Ekuale finished that season having started all 16 of his appearance, with the defensive lineman setting career-highs in tackles (52) and QB hits (three). In 64 career games, the 31-year-old has collected 97 stops and six sacks.

His performance with the Patriots earned him a one-year, $2.8MM deal from the Steelers this past offseason. He got into seven games with his new squad, appearing in about 14 percent of his team’s defensive snaps. Ekuale suffered a torn ACL back in Week 8 that ended his season prematurely. Considering that injury and his continued bans from the league office, the defensive lineman may face an uphill battle to find a job in 2026.

Minor NFL Transactions: 10/31/25

October 31st, 2025 at 8:26pm CST by Adam La Rose

Here are Friday’s only minor moves:

Cincinnati Bengals

Activated from IR: DE Cedric Johnson
Signed to active roster: QB Sean Clifford

Jacksonville Jaguars

Placed on IR: S Eric Murray
Signed to active roster: WR Austin Trammell

Pittsburgh Steelers

Placed on IR: S DeShon Elliott, DL Daniel Ekuale (story)

With replacement starting quarterback Joe Flacco still questionable to play this weekend as he deals with an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder, Clifford makes his way to the active roster to serve as the team’s third, emergency passer behind Flacco and backup Jake Browning.

Steelers DL Daniel Ekuale Suffers ACL Tear

October 27th, 2025 at 3:42pm CST by Adam La Rose

The Steelers’ defense is a group which has received considerable criticism so far this season. The unit will be without a depth contributor moving forward.

Daniel Ekuale went down during yesterday’s loss against the Packers. The veteran defensive lineman has since been diagnosed with a torn ACL, Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network report. As a result, he will miss the remainder of the campaign.

Ekuale has bounced around the AFC over the course of his career. The former UDFA saw time with the Browns and Jaguars before a four-year run in New England. Ekuale’s Patriots tenure saw him log 16 starts, each of which came last season. In 2024, he comfortably set a new career high with 52 tackles while playing over 700 defensive snaps.

Prior to yesterday’s injury, Ekuale had only been on the field for 14% of the Steelers’ snaps. That marked a career low in terms of workload, but his absence will still deal a blow to a Pittsburgh defensive front over the remainder of the season. Ekuale, 31, signed a one-year deal in March to come to Pittsburgh. Needless to say, today’s injury news will greatly hinder his value on the open market next spring.

Pittsburgh moved Dean Lowry to injured reserve this summer, ending his 2025 campaign before it began. The team has Cameron Heyward and Keeanu Benton, along with rookies Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black, remaining on the depth chart along the defensive line. That group will be counted on to continue operating as key figures on the defensive interior moving forward. Ekuale, meanwhile, will now turn his attention to a lengthy recovery process.

Steelers Sign DT Daniel Ekuale

March 16th, 2025 at 9:05pm CST by Ely Allen

The Steelers will replace one veteran defensive tackle with another. After watching Larry Ogunjobi depart for Buffalo, Pittsburgh has signed former Patriots defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale to fill his place, according to his agent, Blake Baratz.

Ekuale entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Washington State in 2018, signing with the Browns. After some nominal playing time in Cleveland, Ekuale’s sophomore campaign saw him start five games for the Jaguars in nine game appearances. For the second straight year, though, the team with which he finished the season, let him go in final roster cuts just prior to the next season.

This time, Ekuale landed in New England, where he would play a rotational role on the Patriots defensive line for the next two years. He started 2021, his first year with the team, coming off the practice squad, before the team began to realize his contribution potential as he tallied two sacks. After sitting out the first two games of 2022 due to a suspension, Ekuale continued in his rotational role. He played in every game for the remainder of that season logging another two sacks. He started 2023 in a similar role, but a torn bicep forced him to miss all but three games of the season.

Ekuale returned to the field in 2024 as a fill-in starter for the Patriots while Christian Barmore dealt with diagnosed blood clot issues. Ekuale ended up starting every game of the season but one last year, the first serious playing time of his career. He only tallied one sack while merely matching career highs in tackles for loss (2) and quarterback hits (3), but he vastly improved his tackling numbers with a career-high 52 combined tackles.

In his first season as a full-time starter, Ekuale graded out just above average, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), ranking 52nd out of 118 interior defenders. If he plays up to the same level in Pittsburgh, that would be an improvement over the player he’s replacing, Ogunjobi, who hasn’t ranked higher than 52nd per PFF since his rookie season in 2017.

Latest On Christian Barmore, Patriots’ DT Plans

August 25th, 2024 at 11:16am CST by Rory Parks

A frightening report from late last month noted that Patriots DT Christian Barmore was diagnosed with blood clots. At the time, it was too early to speculate on his NFL future, but we now have some additional information to pass along.

This year, up to two players that are placed on injured reserve on cutdown day can be activated during the season (previously, a player had to be on the 53-man roster on cutdown day and then placed on IR in order to be eligible for activation, which led to a significant amount of seemingly needless roster machinations). According to Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, Barmore is one of New England’s top candidates to benefit from the new rule (safety Marte Mapu is the other player that Kyed names).

In other words, there is a chance that Barmore will play this season. As Kyed notes, the 25-year-old defender has not yet been placed on a season-ending reserve list, so the Pats are at least holding out hope for a 2024 return.

That would obviously represent a key development for the club’s defense. In his 2023 breakout, Barmore logged a 66% snap share and recorded career highs in sacks (8.5), total tackles (64), tackles for loss (13), quarterback hits (16), pass deflections (six), and forced fumbles (one). The advanced metrics supported that surface-level production, with Pro Football Focus ranking Barmore as the eighth-best interior defender in the NFL.

On the strength of that performance, the 2021 second-rounder became one of a number of Patriots to land an extension from the club’s new regime, inking a four-year deal worth up to $92MM in April. Clearly, New England saw Barmore’s 2023 effort as a sign of things to come and not a one-year blip.

While the Pats await Barmore’s return, they will turn to Daniel Ekuale as his primary replacement, as Kyed writes. While Ekuale has been utilized primarily on passing downs since coming to Foxborough in 2021, he has the size (6-3, 310) to operate as a three-technique defensive tackle.

Like Ekuale, the similarly-sized Trysten Hill has quietly had a strong camp, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. Nonetheless, Reiss expects the club to trawl the waiver wire for a run-stuffing DT – and additional offensive line help – when teams across the league make their final cutdowns this week (that is especially true since free agent pickup Armon Watts has failed to impress). New England has No. 3 waiver priority so should have an opportunity to claim some of the more intriguing cuts from rival clubs.

Patriots Place DT Daniel Ekuale On IR

September 26th, 2023 at 7:24pm CST by Ben Levine

After suffering an injury during Sunday’s win over the Jets, Patriots defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale will miss at least a month. The team announced that they’ve placed the defensive lineman on injured reserve. According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Ekuale tore his biceps, an injury that will keep him off the field for at least four games.

After bouncing between the Browns and Jaguars to begin his career, Ekuale has found a home in New England in recent years. After getting into seven games with the Patriots in 2021, Ekuale appeared in 15 games for the team in 2022, getting into about one third of the team’s defensive snaps. The defensive tackle ultimately finished last season with 14 tackles and a pair of sacks.

Through the first three games of the 2023 season, Ekuale was seeing a similar role as he did in 2022. Pro Football Focus currently has the defensive tackle graded 50th among 128 qualifying interior defenders, although the site did give him a top-20 grade for his run defense.

Fortunately for the Patriots, the team isn’t in desperate need for defensive line help. Davon Godchaux and Lawrence Guy will continue to soak up most of the snaps in the middle of the defensive line, and the team could get creative with Christian Barmore. Sam Roberts also saw a bump in snaps once Ekuale exited Sunday’s game.

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/17/23

March 17th, 2023 at 10:28pm CST by Ely Allen

Here are today’s minor moves from around the league:

Atlanta Falcons

Signed: LB Tae Davis

Buffalo Bills

Signed free agent tender: CB Dane Jackson

Carolina Panthers

Signed: C Justin McCray

Green Bay Packers

Re-signed: S Rudy Ford

Las Vegas Raiders

Signed: LS Jacob Bobenmoyer

Los Angeles Chargers

Re-signed: P JK Scott

Miami Dolphins

Re-signed: WR River Cracraft

New England Patriots

Re-signed: DT Daniel Ekuale
Signed: LB Chris Board

New York Jets

Re-signed: FB Nick Bawden
Signed: C Trystan Colon-Castillo

Washington Commanders

Signed: DT Abdullah Anderson

Board is a strong special teamer, signing a two-year, $5MM deal with New England, according to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. The contract reportedly includes incentives that can push the deal to a maximum value of $6.7MM.

Colon-Castillo reportedly visited the Falcons today, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. Despite the visit, he decided to sign with the Jets.

NFL Suspends Patriots DT Daniel Ekuale

June 13th, 2022 at 4:04pm CST by Sam Robinson

Patriots defensive lineman Daniel Ekuale‘s season is now set to begin late. The NFL gave the young interior defender a two-game suspension Monday, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.

Ekuale frequently earned late-week promotions onto the Patriots’ active roster, bouncing between their practice squad and 55-man game-day contingent last season. The Pats gave the former Washington State D-lineman a reserve/futures contract in January.

After starting five games with the Jaguars in 2020, Ekuale did not last into the team’s Urban Meyer-led regular season. The Jags waived him ahead of last season, but Ekuale landed on the Patriots’ taxi squad soon after. In seven Pats games featuring just 99 defensive snaps, Ekuale registered two sacks.

This will be the American Samoa native’s age-28 season. He is set to make $965K in base salary. This suspension stands to hurt Ekuale’s chances with the Patriots, though his practice squad performance last season obviously works in his favor ahead of his second year with the team.