PITTSBURGH — The Steelers will be without starting linebacker Elandon Roberts this week after he suffered a pec injury against the Bengals. Mike Tomlin ruled him out for their game against the Seahawks, but did not rule him out for the rest of the season, and Roberts is not going on injured reserve.
That left open the door for a potential return, whether that is the playoffs or even against the Ravens in about a week and a half. Roberts would not expand on what exactly the injury is, but he did give a promising report, and that was to not count him out just yet.
“I’m taking it one day at a time, but you know me. Don’t count me out,” Roberts said.
Roberts will have a personal consecutive games played streak snapped at 49. He last missed a game due to injury on the final week of the 2020 season. In his place, Myles Jack, Blake Martinez, Mark Robinson, and Mykal Walker will play. But Roberts seems to be hoping it is just a one-game absence rather than anything more. He did not miss a game after suffering a groin injury earlier this year, when it appeared he would sit out.
Roberts has been critical to the Steelers’ defensive efforts this season. He started the year as the third linebacker in rotation with Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander, but when the two of them went down with season-ending injuries in Weeks 8 and 9, Roberts became a full-time starter and dragged a rotating cast of characters along with him at the position.
Jack, in particular, is likely to wear the green dot, and he had just joined the team last month, coming out of retirement to be part of the practice squad, and was playing in his first game of the season when he was thrust into the starting lineup.
Jack acquitted himself well, making six tackles, one for a loss, one sack and two quarterback hits. If Roberts returns, it is possible that he and Jack will start next to each other.