Steelers Defense Short-Handed Once Again

The Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the Los Angeles Chargers without a few pieces of their defense. Their Week 10 injury report leaves them with two key role players, including a safety, who leaves them moving players around.

Pittsburgh will not have safety Jabrill Peppers and linebacker Cole Holcomb in Week 10. Peppers will miss his second game due to a quad injury that he suffered during practice in Week 9. Holcomb is dealing with an illness that will now leave him absent for a second consecutive game.

The losses will force the Steelers to adjust. Jalen Ramsey is expected to play full-time safety for a second-straight week. The All-Pro defensive back is primarily a slot cornerback, but has moved around the defensive backfield this season. Now, he's sticking with safety, alongside Kyle Dugger.

"It's definitely new, for sure," Ramsey said about moving to safety. "Before last week, I think the last time I played safety for a full game was like my freshman year in college, so however many years ago that was. 13 or something like that, so it's been a while. It's definitely not just like riding a bike. It's tough, but fun. I mean I love football, so all pieces of it I enjoy and try to embrace."

Steelers Short-Handed on Defense

The Steelers' safety position will include Ramsey, Dugger, Juan Thornhill and Chuck Clark. Last week, Clark missed the game because of an illness, leaving Ramsey, Dugger and Thornhill as the options, but Ramsey and Dugger played nearly the entire game.

This leaves Darius Slay, Joey Porter Jr. and Brandin Echols as the team's starting cornerbacks and James Pierre as the backup off the bench.

At inside linebacker, Pittsburgh now turns to Malik Harrison to be their run-stuffing option. Holcomb was in the starting rotation with Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen. When they faced run-heavy offenses, he'd start with Queen, and then against pass-heavy teams, Wilson would start in Holcomb's place.