BREAKING: Steelers make MULTIPLE moves... It's OFFICIAL | Pittsburgh Steelers News

Last time Deshaun Elliott played in an NFL game was October 26, 2025, Sunday night at home against the Green Bay Packers. That night, he hurt his knee and his hamstring, and he hasn't been on the field since. This morning, 363 days later, the Steelers just made a huge move that has some big implications going forward ahead of kickoff in Paris. But that wasn't the only move, as the Steelers called up a couple of other names, including a notable wide receiver. But let's start with Deshaun Elliott. Here's how close this came to not even happening at all. At cut down day on August 30th, Deshaun Elliott went on injured reserve. The knee and the hamstring, it flared up again this summer. On October 8th, he came back to practice and that started a 21 day clock. Activate him by October 29th or he's done for the year. This morning, they made the call with just five days to spare. They didn't even have to cut anybody to do it as on Wednesday, as I covered in video on Wednesday, they released Rayshon Jenkins, which means they had a spot sitting wide open waiting for Deshaun Elliott. And the week went about as well as it possibly could have. He practiced in full on Wednesday, in full on Thursday. And now, of course, being activated today, I'm absolutely fired up. And so is Mike McCarthy. But he did say he will make those decisions officially after tomorrow's practice. That was back on Thursday. Yesterday's practice came and went. And here we are. So why does this matter so much? Because the last time Elliott had full season here, he was the most active tackler on this defense. In 2024, his first year in Pittsburgh, he played 15 games and made 96 tackles. 61 of them were solo, the most on the team. Plus two forced fumbles, five tackles for loss, and six passes defended. And here's how rare that is. Since 1999, only two Steelers' safeties have had a season with 60 solo tackles and two forced fumbles, Ryan Clark in 2012 and Deshaun Elliott in 2024. And even last year, in just five games, He had 38 tackles, a sack, an interception, and a forced fumble. He's a sixth-round pick from 2018, Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, now to Pittsburgh. 77 games with 69 career starts, and wherever he goes, he plays. He's had a whole year to think about this moment. This week, he told the AP, I haven't bought an outfit of clothing in almost a full year. He's also a Liverpool fan, which is kind of interesting, so he's wearing a Virgil van Dijk jersey into the stadium in Paris. Where does he fit on this team? Let's start with who played last week in Tampa. but you had Jaquan Brisker, who was on the field for all 74 snaps. He got 41 tackles and an interception this year. Next to him, seventh round rookie Robert Spears Jennings. He'd been really solid playing 64% of snaps, and he took Rayshawn Jenkins' job after week four, and he's held onto it. And the rookie's been very, very good. 18 tackles, a pick, and two passes defended through six games. But that was Deshaun Elliott's job. That was supposed to be his job before he got hurt. So the snaps that move first are probably the rookies. And Graham said this week that the group is really coming together and they need everybody they can get back there because the corner room just got thinner once again with Brandon Echols missing every practice this week with his hamstring injury and he's out. Reporter Jr. as you know was gone traded to Dallas earlier this month so the corners right now are Jalen Ramsey who's been playing safety, Asante Samuel Jr. and Jamel Dean and on Jalen Ramsey his wrist he didn't practice Wednesday it was limited Thursday but he was listed as a full go Friday no designation he is playing and this defense is coming off its best game of the year 19 points allowed in Tampa the fewest since week one with five sacks and two picks does open up an honest conversation to be had here surrounding you know a healthy Deshaun Elliott healthy Jaquan Brisker do you move other guys around you take the rookie out and realistically right Deshaun Elliott hasn't played a game in you know a year over a year and it's gonna be a wild one let's dive into the two other moves from this morning and it goes to show you how thin this wide receiver room it really is so as we all know Michael Pittman Jr. went on the injured reserve october 10th with a foot injury then roman wilson roman wilson sorry followed him one week later on october 17th with a finger injury and then Ben Skronka missed every practice this week with a calf injury he's out that is three wide receivers down for the second week in a row so the steelers just made two moves off the practice squad first brandon smith undrafted out of iowa in 2021 he's been with the cowboys the cardinals the jets the patriots and two spring league teams in between and last week in tampa he played 41 snaps that's 52 percent of the offense the third most of the third most out of any receiver, they had no catches, no targets but they did trust him out there, now here's the catch this is his third elevation this season, five week six and now Paris, so that's three, three is the limit which means that they want to have him on the field again after Sunday, they have to sign him to the 53 man roster, now Brendan Johnson as well who was called up today, he was undrafted in 2022, 26 career catches, 335 yards and five touchdowns including a 50 yard hail mary from Russell Wilson back with the Denver Broncos, now last week he only played three snaps but he keeps finding his way back and it's interesting, but one name that's not on this list, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, he's someone who caught 123 passes from Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, he came to the team Tuesday, was signed to the practice squad deal, but he's only had a couple practices so he will wait, which means now it's DK Metcalf and Jeremy Bernard carrying the load Metcalf had 30 catches or has 30 catches for 318 yards this season, Bernard 24 for 227, both run the field for more than 90 percent of the snaps last week and the leader in touchdown catches on this team isn't even a receiver at all, it's Pat Freiermuth who has four, help is coming but not yet obviously Pittman went on IR before week five so he can't play for a while Wilson can't play for a while so right now you have to go with the practice squad folks so what does all this mean it means Aaron Rodgers is probably going to be passing to a lot of tight ends on Sunday it's also time now to dive into Paris a little bit because nothing about this trip has been normal so the Steelers flew out Thursday and Friday they were supposed to practice at the Stade de France but a windstorm canceled it before they even landed with Mike McCarthy saying once they landed and drove past the stadium quote i wish we would have stopped so their only work in France before kickoff is a walkthrough which is happening today and off the field it's been pretty tense the Steelers called off their fan event in the Bastille on Thursday and today the league closed the NFL house because of street protests across the city. Aaron Rodgers was asked about his answer. The game means a lot to the NFL. If it was unsafe, then I'm sure we wouldn't be here. Rodgers could take protests are not unusual, friends, as you know. Now, the rest of the injury report, again, Skronic and Echols are out. Rico Dowdle is questionable with a knee injury. He was limited all week. And then Sebastian Joseph today put on the injured reserve. The good news, though, TJ Watt, Alex Highsmith, Jalen Ramsey were all listed as full goes on Friday, and none of them have a designation. Cam Hayward got Wednesday and Thursday started to rest. He is good to go. And folks, the stakes are huge in this game. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore are all 4-2. Cincinnati is 3-2. Nobody has any room to lose games right now, especially against good or bad teams. And the Saints come in as a bad team at 2-4. The Steelers are about 2.5-point favorites. And the prediction markets give them an over 56% chance to win. But Pittsburgh, history isn't really on its side, right? Since 1999, the Steelers are 2-4 against the Saints and 0-3 when New Orleans was the home team and on paper technically tomorrow is a Saints home game even though it's in France now on the Saints front Alvin Kamara was listed limited all week with a back injury but he's going to be a full go Garrett Cesar Ruiz and defensive tackle Nathan Shepherd are questionable tomorrow morning 9:30 a.m. eastern time the first regular season game ever for the NFL played in France so folks how do you feel about the moves that they made how do you feel about the return of Deshaun Elliott it's gonna be very interesting to see how they actually go about utilizing Deshaun Elliott who are they going to take I guess snaps away from minutes away from your wide receiver room they did not activate Marquez Valdez Scantling which is quite interesting especially with all the reports that are coming out with you know about their interest in other wide receivers do you think this secondary is good enough with you know without Joey Porter Jr. obviously without Brandon Echols it's going to be interesting and how do you feel about the new signings of folks one thing is for certain 364 days later through a knee a hamstring injury at 21 day clock they barely got to before calling him up tomorrow morning we get to watch Deshaun Elliott finally get his day tell me down below do you think the Steelers win in Paris thank you guys for watching we'll see you