Steelers add DeMarvin Leal to active roster, veteran Ja'Whaun Bentley to practice squad

DeMarvin Leal was brought back up to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ active roster, among a flurry of transactions announced by the team Steelers on Wednesday.

Leal joined the Steelers as a third-round pick and defensive lineman in 2022. Beginning with the 2024 training camp, he gradually transitioned increasingly to outside linebacker. It is at that position that the Steelers currently need depth after the ankle injury suffered by starter Alex Highsmith.

“It’s different from being inside because now that I’m on the outside,” Leal said after Wednesday’s practice. “I’m able to stand up; I can see what’s coming. I know what I’ve gotta do — and then I can just destroy everything from there.”

Leal was cut at the end of this recent preseason. He missed the final 12 games of last season because of a neck injury.

Leal took the spot on the 53-man roster of defensive lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk, who like Highsmith suffered a high ankle sprain during this past Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks. Loudermilk was placed on injured reserve.

Veterans added

The Steelers additionally signed three to their practice squad Wednesday — inside linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley, receiver Isaiah Hodgins and tight end Matt Sokol. Each has NFL regular-season experience, albeit Sokol’s is a mere eight games and none since 2023.

Bentley, 29, is intriguing to the Steelers and their current needs because he has a reputation as a run-stuffing inside linebacker. In 2022, for example, Pro Football Focus graded Bentley as the sixth-best “off-ball” linebacker in the NFL at run defense.

“That’s a good characteristic to have when you’re playing football,” Bentley said of run defense. “So that’s something I would like to bring with me everywhere I go: just being a physical player and doing whatever I need to do to help teams win.”

An eight-year veteran, Bentley has 83 games, 68 starts and 509 tackles in his career — all with the New England Patriots, who are the Steelers’ next opponent Sunday. Bentley has not played since a Week 2 game last season, during which he suffered a pectoral injury.

He said there is no timetable for when he might get into a game and/or promoted to the active roster.

“We’re just taking it one day at a time,” Bentley said after taking part in his first practice as a Steeler. “It’s my first day out here, so right now I’m just looking to get all the reps in, meet all the people I need to meet. … Everybody’s been showing me the way. I’m getting used to wearing this black and gold. It feels good.”

Veteran WR signed among other moves

While Bentley’s signing coincides with the Steelers’ struggles against the run so far this season, the addition of Hodgins could be a tacit acknowledgment about the lack of depth in the wide receivers corps. Through two games, Steelers wide receivers have an aggregate 14 catches for 202 yards — and only two catches for 29 yards from anyone in the position group outside of DK Metcalf and Calvin Austin III.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Hodgins has 60 career catches for 634 yards and seven touchdowns over the past four seasons playing for the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants. Hodgins, who turns 27 next month, spent spring, training camp and the preseason with the San Francisco 49ers.

Sokol had two stints with the Steelers in 2024, during training camp and on the practice squad later in the season.

In corresponding moves Wednesday, the Steelers released undrafted rookie tight end J.J. Galbreath and recently-signed wide receiver Rakim Jarrett from their practice squad.