{"id":647065,"date":"2026-01-02T02:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/647065\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:53:15","slug":"steelers-starter-dealing-with-illness-ahead-of-ravens-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/647065\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Starter Dealing with Illness ahead of Ravens Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"categories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-injury-updates\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers Injury Updates<\/a>\u2022<a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1-6-2024-Steelers-v-Ravens-at-MT-Bank-Stadium-9444.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers CB James Pierre\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback James Pierre during a game against the Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 6, 2024. &#8212; Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>PITTSBURGH \u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers starting cornerback James Pierre (calf) was limited on Wednesday but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.steelers.com\/news\/week-18-injury-report-ravens-x9101\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">did not practice<\/a> on Thursday due to an undisclosed illness. It\u2019s unclear if Pierre\u2019s illness will keep him out of Sunday night\u2019s winner-take-all Week 18 game against the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre missed his third straight game this past Sunday with a calf injury he suffered against the Ravens in Week 14. Pierre was limited on Wednesday and Thursday last week before taking a step back and not practicing on Friday. Asante Samuel Jr. has replaced Pierre at outside cornerback since his injury.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre, 29, has been one of the biggest surprises of the season for the Steelers. Considered an afterthought as a cornerback after playing mostly special teams over his first five seasons, he filled in for in juries on the outside, and played well enough for the Steelers to choose to release Darius Slay to keep playing Pierre.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/11-16-2025-Steelers-v-Bengals-29666.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers CB James Pierre\" class=\"wp-image-152836\"  \/>Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback James Pierre tackles Cincinnati Bengals tight end Noah Fant on Nov. 16, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n<p>Pierre downplayed his crucial one-handed interception off his cousin Lamar Jackson in the Steelers\u2019 Week 14 win over the Baltimore. His mom did the talking for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot necessarily, no. It\u2019s just my mom will be talking about it a lot,\u201d Pierre said.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre and Jackson played on the same youth football teams (Northwest Broward Raiders) growing up in South Florida. His INT was the first time he picked off his cousin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, because we\u2019ve always been on the same team,\u201d Pierre said.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson threw an ill-advised pass on the Pierre INT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was\u00a0trying to make something happen.\u00a0It was like\u00a0third\u00a0down.\u00a0I\u00a0tried\u00a0to throw it\u00a0to\u00a0Rasheen [Ali],\u00a0but I threw it too light. He just made a good play on it\u00a0with a one-handed interception,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre returning for Sunday night\u2019s game would provide a big boost for the Steelers\u2019 defense. His participation on Friday will provide more clarity on whether he would be able to suit up. <\/p>\n<p>Alan Saunders provided reporting from Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/baltimore-ravens\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/james-pierre\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">James Pierre<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/steelers-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers Injury Updates\u2022Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback James Pierre during a game against the Baltimore Ravens on Jan.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[117,7,5856,6,520,57,2360,426,2395],"class_list":{"0":"post-647065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-james-pierre","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-steelers-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115823247874289090","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647065","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=647065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}