The Pittsburgh Steelers entered their Week 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals in a compromising position defensively. Their top four safeties were all unavailable, either with injury, like in the case of Minkah Fitzpatrick, Trenton Thompson, and Keanu Neal, or suspension in the case of Damontae Kazee. In their last game, they lost Kazee and Fitzpatrick on back-to-back plays and Thompson suffered a neck injury later on in the game. Thompson was able to return last week, but ended up failing to practice all week and got ruled out prior to the Bengals game.
This forced veteran CB Patrick Peterson to shift to safety full-time as he did following the attrition last week, and practice squad S Eric Rowe to start alongside him.