Steelers activate Damontae Kazee, send Chris Boswell to Injured Reserve

The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off their Week 9 bye and as the team prepares for the New Orleans Saints in Week 10 they are getting some good and bad news. That news, while expected, comes in the way of Damontae Kazee coming off Injured Reserve (IR) and being activated to the 53-man active roster. The bad news is kicker Chris Boswell is headed to IR due to his groin injury.

On Wednesday, the Steelers added kicker Matthew Wright to the 53-man roster. Having to keep him for three weeks as he was brought in from the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad, it was a pretty telling sign that Boswell would land on IR for the time being.

As for Kazee, in the preseason game against the Lions he dislocated his wrist and broke his forearm. The injury saw him have nine screws and a plate inserted during surgery to help him get back to the lineup as soon as possible.

The hope with Kazee in the lineup is the Steelers could utilize some of the three safety defensive sets they had discussed and practiced leading up to the regular season. It could equate to freeing up Minkah Fitzpatrick more to make more game-changing plays, and also give the defense more flexibility in certain situations, like third downs when Robert Spillane has been called upon to try and cover wide receivers, tight ends and running backs in critical situations.

For those wondering why Kazee was activated and not T.J. Watt, it’s mainly due to the fact Kazee‘s 21-day window expires on Friday. T.J. Watt still has until next week for the Steelers to activate, therefore they could wait as long as Saturday at 4 PM in order to still activate Watt for this Sunday’s game.

Be sure to stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for their next home game vs. the Saints in Week 10.