Alex Highsmith has dealt with a rather long list of injuries over the past two seasons, and he suffered a new one ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers ‘ Week 11 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
On the team’s first injury report of the week, Highsmith was listed as a non-participant with a groin injury that hadn’t previously been public knowledge.
There’s still several days to go before Highsmith’s game designation is revealed, but there’s now at least some potential question marks surrounding his availability vs. Cincinnati.
After not missing a single regular season contest during the first four seasons of his NFL career, the injury bug hit Highsmith pretty hard last year.
The star outside linebacker was sidelined for three games during the 2024 campaign due to a groin injury and another three with an ankle injury, limiting him to 11 contests.
Highsmith later battled through a groin ailment in training camp back in August, which kept him off the practice field for several weeks. He returned later in the month, however, and was ready in time to play against the New York Jets in Week 1.
The 28-year-old suffered an ankle sprain soon after that in Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks, though, which led him to miss two contests before ultimately returning in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns.
Highsmith was a non-participant in practice to begin last week with an ankle injury before the Steelers took on the Los Angeles Chargers, but he was later removed from the report and received a full workload.
Again, it’s far too early to determine whether or not Pittsburgh will have Highsmith at its disposal against the Bengals. Regardless of if he plays or not, however, the team shouldn’t have much of an issue pressuring Joe Flacco this weekend.
T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig are both healthy and ready to go, meaning the Steelers will have two of their top three edge rushers active against a Cincinnati offensive line that’s been a bit faulty this season.
Rookie Jack Sawyer has also stepped up when he’s gotten on the field with nine pressures, per Pro Football Focus, and Pittsburgh’s trio on the interior of the defensive line in Cameron Heyward, Keeanu Benton and Derrick Harmon is also capable of picking up the slack if Highsmith isn’t able to give it a go at Acrisure Stadium this weekend.
Houston Texans edge rusher Danielle Hunter has played 145 career regular season the games. The 31-year-old is a former All-Pro, a five-time Pro Bowler and is one of just 46 players in league history with at least 100 career quarterback sacks. We start with this biographical breakdown because it provides perspective for the relatively bold statement I’m about to make… Hunter’s 145th career regular season game
Consider: there have been six instances in the career of Danielle Hunter when he’s finished a game with at least 3 sacks. In just two of those games, Hunter had at least 4 QB hits. And just once — Week 10 against the Jacksonville Jaguars — has Hunter reached those statistical milestones while also registering at least 4 tackles for loss.
Add it all up, and we have one of the most dominant games you’ll ever see from an edge rusher, and again, Hunter is 31 years old and nearly 150 games into his NFL career. Having a peak performance at this juncture of his career is abnormal to say the least. You could say, it’s nearly as abnormal as a UFO sighting, but according to Texans center Jake Andrews, that’s practically what Hunter’s teammates were seeing from the sideline on Sunday afternoon.
“Did you expect anything less? I mean, the guys a monster! Have you seen him? He’s a mutant, man,” Andrews told reporters after the game. “He’s obviously played this long for a good reason, and he still produces like he’s a young buck. He’s awesome. He’s awesome to have in the locker room, he’s a great guy. Really happy for him.”
If the presence of Danielle Hunter on one side of the defense isn’t frightening enough, having Will Anderson Jr. on the opposite side is certainly enough to send a shiver down the spine of any opposing quarterback. Hunter paced the Texans last Sunday with 3.5 sacks, but Anderson was the one who came in for the game-clinching strip sack, knocking the ball loose from the hands of Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence on the final play of the contest.
Together, Hunter and Anderson have gotten to opposing quarterbacks 14.5 times this season. They’ve forced 4 combined fumbles and stopped 18 plays behind the line of scrimmage. It’s a duo that has been as good as advertised, and is well on their way to matching their production from the 2024 season, when they combined for 23 sacks and 33 tackles for loss.
“Will and Danielle, they’re definitely a scary force on the edge and two of the best edge rushers in the league,” Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said this week, per Jared Koch. “We’re blessed to have both of those guys as rushers on our team.”