Injury Return Potentially Delayed for Veteran Steelers DB

PITTSBURGH — It had been looking like the Pittsburgh Steelers were set to get veteran defensive back Damontae Kazee back for Sunday’s Week 7 primetime showdown with the New York Jets, but now that might not be happening.

After missing Wednesday’s practice and being limited in Thursday’s practice, Kazee was a full participant in the Steelers’ Friday practice session and was given no injury designation for the team’s Sunday Night Football game.

But after the team’s walkthrough on Saturday, team spokesman Burt Lauten announced that Kazee has been downgraded from no injury designation to questionable to play against the Jets.

Kazee was originally injured when he stepped on a football and twisted his ankle during warmups before the team’s Week 5 game against the Dallas Cowboys. Kazee was able to play through the injury against Dallas, but swelling prevented him from participating in practice the following week and he was held out of the Steelers’ Week 6 road game agains the Las Vegas Raiders.

Veteran strong safety Terrell Edmunds replicated most of Kazee’s role against the Raiders, and filled in for starting free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick briefly when he went down during the game. The Steelers did not dress and additional defensive back to replace Kazee on the active game-day roster, and do not have another free safety available on either the active roster or practice squad.

Kazee is in his third season with the Steelers and has played in 28 games with 13 starts since the beginning of the 2022 season. This year in five games, he has eight tackles, one pass defended and one interception.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS INJURY REPORT