The banged up Pittsburgh Steelers are about to start logging some heavy miles on top of their rough injury luck.
First-year coach Mike McCarthy’s team will play four of its next five games on the road starting this week, and it will take multiple longer – and daunting – trips to do so before things begin to moderate in the back half of the 2026 schedule.
All of it will unfold amid mounting absences. Running back Rico Dowdle; receivers Michael Pittman Jr., Roman Wilson and Ben Skowronek; and defensive backs Jamel Dean and Jalen Ramsey have all been hurt in some form or fashion recently.
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The stretch will be one of, if not the, most grueling in the franchise’s history and could determine whether the Steelers’ 3-2 start has legs, or whether another mediocre year awaits a franchise that hasn’t won an NFL playoff game since 2017.
NFL Week 6 brings a road trip to Tampa Bay to face the Buccaneers. That’s a 1,000-or-so-mile trip right off the bat against a desperate 1-4 team that needs a win to preserve any postseason hopes.
One week later, the Steelers will board a long flight to Paris to face the New Orleans Saints in the first NFL regular season game in France.
It will be only the second international game for Pittsburgh since 2013. It picked up a win against Minnesota in Dublin, Ireland last October, but the travel schedule was much kinder surrounding that date.
The Steelers got to enjoy a bye after their trip to the Emerald Isle and did not need to travel any further than Massachusetts until they visited the Los Angeles Chargers in early November. It was a similar story when they played in London13 years ago. They came home to a bye, and most travel was relatively local for the month before and after.
This time around, they’ll have to turn around and face Cleveland at home the following Sunday before finally reaching the open date in the schedule.
Out of the bye, road trips to face the division rival Bengals and in-state rival Eagles await. Neither is a long trip in terms of mileage, but the Steelers have not won in Philadelphia since 1965, and it follows an AFC North dogfight.
Along the way, McCarthy and GM Omar Khan will hope to get healthier and avoid further attrition.
The receivers room is the most pressing problem. Pittman will be out for at least the next three games after being placed on injured reserve. The veteran was a key offseason acquisition but has only played in three games in which he’s caught seven passes for 89 yards.
The extent of the injuries to Wilson and Skowronek, sustained against Indianapolis, are not yet known, but McCarthy said Monday that both will be out for at least the Tampa Bay game.
That piles a heavy burden onto DK Metcalf, rookie Germie Bernard as well as practice squad options Brandon Smith and Brandon Johnson unless outside additions are made.
The secondary is a bit better off. Ramsey spent the week leading up to the Colts game on the injury report but handled a normal workload. Only Dean was absent, and the Steelers have not yet taken the step of adding the free agent cornerback signing to injured reserve. Dean was a limited practice participant Wednesday while Ramsey was out with a wrist injury listed.
McCarthy hinted strongly that Dowdle is expected back this week from the toe injury he sustained in Week 2 against New England. He was also limited Wednesday. That should help the offense manage the reps of Jaylen Warren, who’s handled a heavy workload in Dowdle’s absence.
One notable addition to the injury report was defensive lineman Keeanu Benton. He missed practice Wednesday with an ankle injury, so that will be a new one to monitor throughout the week as his team prepares to hit the road.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steelers injury report: Pittsburgh enters road trip with abundance of injuries