Jamel Dean practiced on a limited basis Thursday and said he is optimistic he can play Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, even as an injured ankle kept the question open. The Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback turned 30 on Thursday, and the next step is whether he is active when the teams meet at 1 p.m. at Raymond James Stadium.
The timing matters because Dean is not just another defender trying to get through a week. The Steelers signed him to a three-year, $36.73 million contract, and his availability has a direct effect on a secondary that has had little time to settle after being short-handed. If he plays, it would come against the team where he spent seven seasons, made 77 starts and won a Super Bowl.
Dean said the game would feel bittersweet, and he added that he hoped he would not accidentally walk into the Buccaneers locker room. He also called it a moment where the student goes against the teacher, a nod to Todd Bowles, who took over the Buccaneers defense in 2019 and later became head coach. Bowles had deployed Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting together as starting cornerbacks as recently as 2022, so there is no mystery about how well the two know the system.
That familiarity is part of what makes the matchup harder to pin down. Murphy-Bunting was signed off the Buccaneers practice squad last week and said he had already given the Steelers little nuggets about what could happen, but he also noted that Bowles knows both players and likely has answers ready. Even Dean sounded aware of the limits of that inside knowledge, saying he could not wait to see how everything unravels.
The bigger problem for Pittsburgh is that Dean is trying to answer that question while still working back from injury. He was sidelined last week against the Colts and left early in Week 4 against the Browns, so his optimism is only part of the story. What decides Sunday now is simple: whether the ankle holds up enough for him to suit up, or whether the Steelers go into Raymond James Stadium without one of their most important offseason additions.
