{"id":45476,"date":"2025-11-26T18:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/45476\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T18:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:50:08","slug":"steelers-defensive-lineman-suspended-for-ped-violation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/45476\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Defensive Lineman Suspended for PED Violation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"categories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/10-14-2025-Steelers-Practice-4122-scaled-e1764104416270.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers DT Daniel Ekuale\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale at practice on Oct. 14, 2025, &#8212; Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale has been suspended five games by the NFL for violating the league\u2019s performance-enhancing substances policy, the league announced on Tuesday<\/p>\n<p>Ekuale, 31, is in his first season with the Steelers, and has been <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-place-defensive-lineman-on-injured-reserve\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on the injured reserve list since Oct. 31<\/a>, after <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-lose-defensive-lineman-vs-packers\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suffering a torn ACL<\/a> in the team\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-defense-implodes-again-packers-go-off-in-35-25-win\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Week 8 loss to the Green Bay Packers<\/a>. He is expected to miss the remainder of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>Ekuale\u2019s suspension will be served while he is on the injured reserve list. It is an unpaid suspension that will cost him approximately $325,000 in salary over the next five weeks. His one-year contract with the Steelers will expire in March.<\/p>\n<p>In seven games this season, he finished with six tackles, two tackles for loss, one quarterback hit and one pass defended.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"788\" height=\"517\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/9-21-2025-Steelers-v-Patriots-5033-e1764104853636.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers DL Daniel Ekuale\" class=\"wp-image-143136\"  \/>Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale in a game against the New England Patriots on Sept. 21, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n<p>Ekuale played for the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots in his first six NFL seasons, becoming a starter for the Patriots for the first time in 2024 before joining the Steelers, where he accepted a role as the team\u2019s backup nose tackle and No. 4 rotational defensive tackle.<\/p>\n<p>Since his injury, he has been replaced by rookie Yahya Black. Black is in line to start this week after fellow rookie defensive tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-rule-out-defensive-starter-vs-bills\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derrick Harmon<\/a> was also ruled out with a knee injury. Esezi Otomewo, Brodric Martin and Logan Lee represent the team\u2019s remaining defensive line depth.<\/p>\n<p>Ekuale is the second Steelers defensive lineman to face a suspension for performance-enhancing substances this year. Former Steelers defensive lineman <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/just-released-steelers-dt-suspended-for-failed-ped-test\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Larry Ogunjobi<\/a> was also suspended for the first six games of this season, after he was released by the Steelers in March and signed with the Buffalo Bills as a free agent.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/daniel-ekuale\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Ekuale<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale at practice on Oct. 14, 2025, &#8212; Ed Thompson \/&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11943,73,75,74,1833,1829],"class_list":["post-45476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-daniel-ekuale","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}