The Pittsburgh Steelers are among the many luckiest groups within the NFL this season on the subject of what’s occurring on the sector, no less than in their very own video games. This 12 months, like different years, they’ve been fortunate by way of opponent availability, particularly on the quarterback place.
In the course of their schedule, they seem like hitting some groups at a foul time, doubtlessly coping with backups or new starters as a result of efficiency over the following 5 weeks. And that features two surprising adjustments over the previous week.
Their sport this Sunday towards the Cleveland Browns will now function rookie QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson after Deshaun Watson suffered a shoulder harm of their win over the Baltimore Ravens final weekend.
After that, the Steelers may doubtlessly play a Cincinnati Bengals workforce minus Joe Burrow, who’s coping with a wrist harm that will have been a problem previous to final night time’s sport towards the Ravens. He was seen sporting a brace on his throwing hand on the workforce’s social media, and the Bengals later deleted that publish.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor stated after the sport that he was unaware of that till it got here to mild afterward, noting that his quarterback landed on his wrist earlier within the sport after which aggravated it whereas throwing a brief landing go threw to RB. Joe Mixon.
The prolonged break throughout a Thursday night time sport may give him an opportunity to play towards the Steelers, however Burrow may miss a while with this wrist harm even when it isn’t season-ending. The Bengals have already fallen to 5-5 on the season and will quickly see their playoff hopes dashed after profitable the division two years in a row.
On the opposite facet of the harm development, Pittsburgh’s subsequent non-division opponent would be the Arizona Cardinals, who not too long ago activated QB Kyler Murray. He went 19-for-32 in his first sport again for 249 yards with one interception, including a six-yard speeding landing, and it was sufficient to provide them simply their second win of the 12 months.
After the Western guests, the Steelers stay house to the New England Patriots. At that time, Invoice Belichick could have already benched QB Mac Jones, who’s having a really disappointing season and has already been pulled a number of instances in favor of Bailey Zappe.
And subsequent are the Indianapolis Colts, who’ve already misplaced rookie starter Anthony Richardson within the first spherical this season. Gardner Minshew is their quarterback shifting ahead and they’re 3-3 within the video games he has began this 12 months, together with two straight wins.
The following sport after the go to to Indianapolis is the follow-up sport towards the Bengals, so if Burrow’s harm proves severe, he may even miss that one. Any means you have a look at it, a lot of the again half of the Steelers schedule consists of groups which can be at present in disaster on the quarterback place.