The Pittsburgh Steelers' defense has taken several blows ahead of their Week 5 home matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. They will have a tall task as they look to slow down star running back Jonathan Taylor on Sunday. They will have to do so without defensive lineman Derrick Harmon, who was placed on Injured Reserve (IR), which makes the mountain even taller to climb. They also expect to be without cornerback Jamel Dean for a few weeks due to an ankle injury, which triggered them to sign Sean Murphy-Bunting on Monday. The veteran cornerback has battled injuries, but has one advantage to help the team.
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Steelers' Sean Murphy-Bunting on the field during a home game during his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The move comes to provide some depth for a Pittsburgh secondary that is starting to get very thin. It complicated matters more when Dean sustained his injury in Week 4 after the team traded star cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys. Now they will look to stay afloat until they can get guys healthy and get some relief for the positional group.
On Tuesday evening, team insider Mark Kaboly joined 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh to discuss the upcoming matchup and storylines around the franchise. During the appearance, he was asked about the recent signing they made. While this certainly was not a splash move given the veteran was on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad, he does feel he will have a chance to see playing time.
“I would assume [Sean Murphy-Bunting] is going to play,” Kaboly said. “I mean I always have questioned a guy that comes off the practice squad. Why wasn’t he on the active roster? If they need him as a backup or situational player, I could see him there. I would rather have him in there, his 60 or 70 career games, than somebody who's new to it.”
During his NFL tenure, he was a member of a Tampa Bay team that won Super Bowl LV while being teammates with Dean during that run. Despite being on the practice squad for a winless team this year, he still provides experience, having played in 82 games so far in his NFL career. That is the advantage that Kaboly alluded to where he can be used as a backup or in certain situations in a game.
The group needed some sort of help in their secondary, especially at the cornerback position. The problem with needing that help at this point in the season is organizations are going to sign practice squad players if they are not able to find a trade suitor. In those 82 games played in his NFL career, the veteran defensive back has 11 interceptions, as well as eight forced fumbles. Despite not playing in the 2025 season, Murphy-Bunting was an integral part in the Super Bowl LV run.
Steelers Likely Already Have Plans For Murphy-Bunting
Given the adversity he had to deal with by not playing in 2025, the former Buccaneer should see the Steelers ease him into playing alongside his new teammates. However, with a secondary room as banged up as they are, they just need him to be a guy that consistently can play snaps. This is not the type of move that really revitalizes the Pittsburgh cornerback room, but it can definitely help with how short-handed they have become at this position.
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Steelers' Sean Murphy-Bunting makes a tackle during his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In 2024, his most recent season, he played in 15 games and started in each of those. In those 15 starts, he also tied his personal career-high with three interceptions in that season. The expectation should not be that Murphy-Bunting is going to go back to the guy that can put up that kind of production, especially with him joining the team after Week 4 of the season. However, the track record does prove that it is better off to have him out there as a backup rather than someone with far less experience.
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