{"id":392867,"date":"2025-09-24T09:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/392867\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T09:09:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:09:16","slug":"pittsburgh-steelers-could-receive-a-big-boost-on-defense-right-when-they-need-it-the-most-against-the-minnesota-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/392867\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers could receive a big boost on defense right when they need it the most against the Minnesota Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time ever, the Pittsburgh Steelers will play a regular-season game in Ireland. Their opponent, the 2-1 Minnesota Vikings, is coming off a beatdown of the Cincinnati Bengals. The AFC North foe only scored 10 points, but they let up nearly 50 against Minnesota, who didn&#8217;t have their starting quarterback. <\/p>\n<p>Carson Wentz will still be starting when the game kicks off, but Jordan Addison, one of the better young WRs in the league, will be back in action for the Vikings. That puts an onus on the Steelers&#8217; secondary, <a href=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers-news\/steelers-injury-update-darius-slay-alex-highsmith-derrick-harmon\/https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers-news\/steelers-injury-update-darius-slay-alex-highsmith-derrick-harmon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:which has been battered with injuries;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">which has been battered with injuries<\/a>, to be ready to go. And according to Mike Tomlin, there is a chance that help is on the way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Alex Highsmith is out this week with his ankle. DeShon Elliot and Joey Porter certainly have a chance,&#8221; said Tomlin on Tuesday. &#8220;I just saw DeShon working out just a few minutes ago. We&#8217;ll work those guys this week, and let the amount of their participation and the quality of their participation be our guide in terms of their participation in games.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Joey Porter Jr., DeShon Elliott could be back for Vikings game<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were in a similar situation last week with Derrick Harmon, for example, he was deemed healthy enough to play,&#8217; added Tomlin. &#8220;We got him in uniform, but we were certainly cognizant of the number of snaps that he played, health and football readiness and conditioning at times can be a different be different things, and so we&#8217;ll watch those guys close and make appropriate decisions at the latter part of the week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>View the <a href=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers-news\/joey-porter-jr-deshon-elliott-could-play-steelers-vs-vikings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:original article;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">original article<\/a> to see embedded media.<\/p>\n<p>The Vikings have looked like world beaters on offense in two of their three games. Week 2 wasn&#8217;t the best showing, but the offensive comeback in Week 1 and the dominance last week show you what this team is capable of.<\/p>\n<p>That was without Addison, of course, whom Tomlin was sure to mention when talking about the Vikings offense. With him back in the mix, that is a lot of eligibles at the disposal of the Vikings, and it makes the job of the Steelers&#8217; defense that much harder.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/steelers-head-coach-mike-tomlin-191601556.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin gives a concerning answer regarding the state of Pittsburgh&#039;s offense right now;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin gives a concerning answer regarding the state of Pittsburgh&#8217;s offense right now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This story was originally reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nfl\/pittsburgh-steelers-news\/joey-porter-jr-deshon-elliott-could-play-steelers-vs-vikings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:A to Z Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">A to Z Sports<\/a> on Sep 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/atozsports.com\/nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:NFL;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">NFL<\/a> section. Add A to Z Sports as a <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=atozsports.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time ever, the Pittsburgh Steelers will play a regular-season game in Ireland. Their opponent, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[6310,1763,256,340,3455,7,18740,7582,8265,1255,259,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-392867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-alex-highsmith","9":"tag-carson-wentz","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-derrick-harmon","12":"tag-deshon-elliott","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-joey-porter","15":"tag-joey-porter-jr","16":"tag-jordan-addison","17":"tag-mike-tomlin","18":"tag-minnesota-vikings","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-pittsburgh","21":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","22":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","23":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115258495151391809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}