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Daniel Ekuale injury update: Steelers DT gets devasting news on knee issue

Meby: Nick Geddes10/27/25NickGeddesNews
Steelers
Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3) defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale tore his ACL in Sunday’s 35-25 Week 8 defeat to the Green Bay Packers (5-1-1), per Mike Garafalo of NFL Network. Ekuale is out for the remainder of the season.

The 31-year-old suffered the injury in the second quarter while rushing Packers quarterback Jordan Love. Head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game that Ekuale had a “significant knee injury.”

Ekuale has appeared in seven games this season, his first with the Steelers. The former Washington State standout previously spent time with the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, and New England Patriots. Ekuale has 97 tackles (53 solo) and six sacks in his career.

Steelers lose to Packers, pick up several injuries

The Steelers dropped their second consecutive game Sunday night after getting off to a 4-1 start. Most concerning, beyond allowing 454 yards and 35 points, were the injuries coming out of the game. In addition to Ekuale, safety DeShon Elliott suffered what could be a serious knee injury. Elliott’s knee bent back under a pile of players during an attempt at tackling Packers tight end Tucker Kraft.

Elliott is the team’s leading tackler in the secondary (38) despite playing in only five games. His potential absence in the long-term will be felt in Pittsburgh.

“DeShon is one of our leaders. He did a lot for our defense,” fellow safety Juan Thornhill said, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I’m not sure what his injury is. Hopefully he’s back. He’s huge. Once he went down, we had a lot of guys playing a lot of positions who didn’t have a lot of [those] reps in practice because DeShon’s always out there working. But when he went down, it was like, ‘What are we going to do now?’ But we’ve got the guys to do it.”