Steelers place DT Harmon on injured reserve
PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Steelers placed second-year defensive tackle Derrick Harmon on injured reserve Monday.
The club made the move four days after Harmon injured his foot in the first half of a 27-24 loss to Cleveland. Harmon will miss a minimum of four weeks, a significant blow to a defense that’s given up several big plays in the run game through the season’s opening month.
Harmon, a first-round pick in 2025, had been coming into his own early this season. His strip-sack in the final minutes against Cincinnati on Sept. 27 helped Pittsburgh hold on to beat the Bengals.
“It’s hard to replace somebody of that magnitude in terms of Harmon, in terms of where he was going in terms of his ascension as a player in the second year,” Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said. “But we got guys that are ready to go.”
Harmon’s absence likely means more snaps for veteran Sebastian Joseph-Day and perhaps even rookie Gabe Rubio, a sixth-round pick out of Notre Dame, when Jonathan Taylor and Indianapolis (2-2) visit on Sunday.
The Steelers made another move on Monday to potentially address their thin secondary.
Less than a week after trading cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to Dallas because of a contract impasse, Pittsburgh signed veteran Sean Murphy-Bunting off Tampa Bay’s practice squad. Murphy-Bunting, a former standout at Central Michigan, last played a regular-season game in 2024 while with Arizona.
He was a second-round selection by the Buccaneers in 2019 and was named to the PFWA All-Rookie team and won a Super Bowl as a starting corner in 2020. Murphy-Bunting has 11 career interceptions, but injuries forced him to miss all of last season.