Steelers Edge Alex Highsmith left in the first half of Thursday night's game against the Patriots with a neck injury. The team ruled him out for the game before halftime. We'll see about his status for Week 15 and beyond.
Steelers RB Najee Harris (knee) is active for tonight's game vs. the Patriots. He didn't practice at all on the short week due to a knee issue that he's been managing throughout the season, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. It's unclear if Harris' workload will be scaled back tonight. See where he sits in the Week 14 RB Rankings as you weigh Harris against your other options.
NFL Network's Cameron Wolfe reports that Steelers LB Elandon Roberts will play tonight against the Patriots. Roberts turned up questionable despite injuring his groin early in Sunday's contest and quickly being ruled out. Roberts managed limited practices the past two days. We'd still be a little wary of using him this week, with the risk of re-injury. But Roberts does appear in our Week 14 LB rankings. We've also nudged LB Mykal Walker down.
Update: Roberts is officially active.
Steelers RB Najee Harris (knee) is expected to play vs. the Patriots tonight, according to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. Harris didn't practice on Tuesday or Wednesday and is listed as questionable. "This is not a new injury," Pelissero adds. "He's been managing the knee throughout the season. Just didn't feel great coming out of the game [last week], so they wanted to rest him." This sounds like the typical late-season, short-week soreness. The issue still adds some risk to Harris' Week 14 fantasy profile -- and we could certainly see Pittsburgh shift some work from Harris to RB Jaylen Warren. See where both Steelers sit in the Week 14 RB Rankings.
Steelers RB Najee Harris (knee) is listed as questionable for Thursday night's game vs. the Patriots. He was added to the injury report and sidelined on Tuesday and then missed practice again on Wednesday. His availability for this one is seemingly in legitimate question. We'll look for further updates on Harris' status and get Pittsburgh's inactives a little before 7 pm ET tomorrow.
Steelers RB Najee Harris (knee) did not practice on Tuesday. He wasn't listed on Monday's estimated injury report. This is certainly something to monitor on the short week. We'll see how Harris is listed on the final injury report tomorrow for Thursday night's game vs. the Patriots. His absence would be a huge boost to RB Jaylen Warren's fantasy value.
Steelers LB Elandon Roberts left Sunday's game against the Cardinals in the first half with a groin injury and was ruled out before halftime. That doesn't bode well for his chances of being ready for Pittsburgh's Thursday night game against the Patriots. Mykal Walker took over defensive play-calling duties after Roberts and would likely lead the LB corps in playing time in any further games Roberts misses.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport says to expect "heavy targets" for Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth again today. He's coming off a big 9-120-0 line on a team-leading 11 targets last week. "Expect them to try to replicate that ... attack the middle of the field," Rapoport adds. You certainly shouldn't be expecting another 100-yard outing from Freiermuth today. But he does sit inside the top 10 of our Week 13 TE Rankings.
Steelers S Minkah Fitzpatrick is off the final injury report for Sunday's game against the Cardinals. That follows a week of full practices and indicates Fitzpatrick is all the way back from the hamstring injury that cost him the past four games. There's some risk in trusting Fitzpatrick in his first game back, but the team's treatment suggests they do. You'll find Fitzpatrick just outside DB2 territory in our Week 13 rankings.
Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth racked up 9 catches for 120 yards in Sunday’s win over the Bengals. He had 5 catches for 89 yards at halftime. In fact, Kenny Pickett set a single-game career-high in combined TE yardage… in the first half alone. Clearly, this was a point of emphasis for new play-caller Mike Sullivan. Freiermuth will be back on the streaming radar next week in a nice scoring matchup at Arizona.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport hears that there will be more focus on getting the ball to RB Jaylen Warren and WR George Pickens under new co-offensive coordinators Mike Sullivan and Eddie Faulkner. Novel idea to get the ball to your two most explosive playmakers! Warren was already a nice RB2 play in today's plus matchup vs. the Bengals. We'd still consider Pickens a risk/reward WR3 -- although this news makes him a bit easier to get into Week 12 fantasy lineups.
The Steelers have ruled S Minkah Fitzpatrick (hamstring) out for Sunday's game against the Bengals. It'll be his fourth straight game missed, and Fitzpatrick still has yet to return to practice since suffering the injury. With Keanu Neal on IR, Damontae Kazee looks like the only full-time Pittsburgh safety. Trenton Thompson (77%), Miles Killebrew (21%), and Elijah Riley (9%) all saw playing time at safety in the last game.
Steelers WR George Pickens (shin) is not listed on the final Week 12 injury report. He went from no practice on Wednesday to limited participation on Thursday to full participation on Friday. The shin shouldn’t be an issue in this weekend’s game vs. the Bengals.
Steelers WR George Pickens (shin) returned to a limited practice on Thursday after being sidelined on Wednesday. We'll see what he does tomorrow and how he's listed on the final injury report for this weekend's game vs. the Bengals.
Steelers WR George Pickens (shin) did not practice on Wednesday. We don't have any other details on the shin injury. We'll see if Pickens is able to get back on the practice field tomorrow, ahead of Sunday's game vs. the Bengals.
The Steelers have fired OC Matt Canada, who has been running the unit since 2021. In that time, Pittsburgh has ranked 21st, 26th, and 28th (so far this year) in scoring. Each season has found the offense ranking 28th in yards per play. NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reports that the team plans to promote RBs coach Eddie Faulkner to OC but hand play-calling duties to QBs coach Mike Sullivan. Faulkner has coached Steelers RBs since 2019 (and previously served in the same role for the team in 2012). His only OC experience to date has been with Ball State in 2009-10. Sullivan has been coaching at the college level or higher for 30 years. He has been in the NFL since 2002, including stints as Buccaneers OC (2012-13) and Giants OC (2016-17). Those offenses finished -- in order -- 13th, 30th, 26th, and 31st in scoring; eighth, 32nd, 24th, and 25th in yards per play. Sullivan didn't get great QB play across those offenses. He started with fourth-season Josh Freeman in Tampa, and then got primarily Mike Glennon the following year. His two seasons at the Giants' offensive helm came in Eli Manning's age-35 and age-36 campaigns. NFL Network's Mike Garafolo says Sullivan has a "strong relationship" with Steelers QB Kenny Pickett, but the new guy probably isn't an upgrade on those previous situations. The switch should be positive for usable skill-position Steelers, though. Canada never won as a play caller and often sported questionable run-pass splits given the output. This year's Steelers also should find upside in a softening schedule. According to FTN's Aaron Schatz, Pittsburgh faced the league's toughest schedule so far this year by total defensive DVOA. Over a full season, the 2023 schedule to date would rank third-toughest of any team since 1981. You can see the negative fantasy impacts of those opponents on our Strength of Schedule pages. The remaining schedule ranks fifth-best for RB scoring and ninth-best for WRs. (Just 17th for TEs, though.) We'll see whether the run-pass splits change. That question plus Pickett's limitations make the WRs tough to get excited about. RB Najee Harris looks interesting, though -- especially because his trade cost has been driven down by meager production and Jaylen Warren's recent numbers.
Steelers RB Jaylen Warren exploded in Week 11, logging 129 rushing yards on 9 carries vs. the Browns. To emphasize his impressive performance, consider that Warren recorded a 74-yard TD run early in the third quarter. Even if you remove that play from Warren’s performance, he still would’ve had nearly twice as many total yards (71) on the 11 other touches than his teammate Najee Harris did (36) on 13 touches in the contest. Still, the Steelers held Warren to a 44.8% snap share on Sunday. This is still a frustratingly split backfield. It’s feasible, however, that back-to-back 100-yard efforts from the former UDFA could push Pittsburgh to give Warren more work over Harris moving forward. It’ll be intriguing to see how the workload is distributed in Week 12 against a softer Bengals defense (29th in run-defense DVOA in 2023).
Bears QB Justin Fields made his return from a thumb injury in Week 11 vs. Detroit. He instantly paid off for fantasy managers, posting 169-1 passing and 104 rushing yards on 18(!) attempts. (Those 18 attempts matched a career-high.) His lone score came on a beautiful deep ball to D.J. Moore, who led the team with 9 targets, 7 catches, and 96 yards. Week 12 turns up a neutral matchup vs. the Vikings, followed by a Week 13 bye. Fields will be a no-doubt QB1 down the stretch, especially for matchups with Detroit (Week 14), Arizona (Week 16) and Atlanta (Week 17).
Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth (hamstring) is active for today’s game vs. the Browns. He was a full-go in practice on Thursday and Friday, so Freiermuth should be ready for his usual role. But he’s a shaky Week 11 fantasy play coming off a multi-week hamstring injury and facing the league’s top-ranked TE defense.
Steelers S Minkah Fitzpatrick (hamstring) will miss his third straight game. Pittsburgh has ruled him out again after another week of no practice. Pittsburgh has also ruled S Keanu Neal (rib) out for the game. That should leave Elijah Riley joining Damontae Kazee at safety in the starting lineup.
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