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DeShon Elliott injury update: Steelers bracing for safety to miss season despite ACL being intact per report

Meby: Nick Geddes10/28/25NickGeddesNews
DeShon Elliott
Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3) safety DeShon Elliott suffered a knee injury in Sunday’s 35-25 Week 8 home defeat to the Green Bay Packers (5-1-1). While Elliott’s ACL is intact, Pittsburgh is bracing for Elliott to miss the remainder of the season, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.

Elliott exited the game in the second half after his knee bent back under a pile of players during an attempt at tackling Packers tight end Tucker Kraft. He was in tears as he was carted off the field.

“They will play the rest of this game without DeShon Elliott because of the injury he suffered to his knee,” NBC sideline reporter Melissa Stark said on the broadcast. “We saw him immediately grab his right knee. He was helped off the field into the medical tent with the athletic training staff and the team orthopedist. He was in so much pain, yelling out in frustration. He was put on the cart, he had tears in his eyes, and his hands covering his face.”

Steelers set to be without DeShon Elliott

Elliott, 28, is a key piece of the Steelers’ defense. He is the team’s leading tackler in the secondary (38) despite playing in only five games. When he was on the field Sunday night, Pittsburgh allowed just seven points and 2.4 yards per carry. Without him, Green Bay scored 28 points and averaged 4.2 yards per carry, per Mike DeFabo of The Athletic.

The Steelers rotated four safeties, including Elliott, against the Packers. Chuck Clark saw a team-high 55 snaps, Elliott 28, Juan Thornhill 26, and Jabrill Peppers 13. Elliott’s potential absence in the long-term will be felt in Pittsburgh.

“DeShon is one of our leaders. He did a lot for our defense,” 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.”