Let’s Applaud #55 On His Return

by Bo Marchionte
@bomarchionte | College2Pro.com
Published August 7, 2025, 12:49 PM

LATROBE, Pa. – Some guys tear an ACL and are back in a year. It’s routine at this point. But what Cole Holcomb went through? That wasn’t routine. It wasn’t a clean tear or standard recovery timeline. It was catastrophic a knee injury so severe, it knocked him out for the rest of the 2023 season and sidelined him the entire 2024 campaign.

Now, after nearly two years of rehab, setbacks, and relentless work, the veteran linebacker is about to do something many weren’t sure would happen again – Suit up.

“It’s probably not your typical preseason game,” Holcomb admitted, standing just outside the locker room at Saint Vincent College. “Yeah… I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t gonna be a special day.”

That “special day” is coming Saturday in Jacksonville, when Holcomb is expected to take the field for the first time since that devastating Week 9 injury. In the time since, Steelers fans have seen him grinding behind the scenes, watching from the sidelines, never quite sure if this moment would come.

“At this point now,” he said, “it’s like… I’m kind of back to just normal shit.” He paused for a beat, cracked a half-smile, and let the real emotion come through “I just want to go out there. I want to have a good time. Have some fun. But now we’re back to let’s f—ing go get it.”

Before the injury, Holcomb was a tackle machine quietly piling up stops the way Bob Evans stacks pancakes. In Washington, he topped 100 combined tackles twice in four years, including a career-high 142 in 2021. He was on pace for another triple-digit season with the Steelers before that brutal collision ended his 2023 campaign in November.

The Steelers defense had to adapt in his absence. New faces stepped up, young players got reps. But there’s a difference between filling in and leading from the middle and Holcomb brings both IQ and edge to a unit that’s already stacked with star power.

“I feel good, you know?” he said, glancing around at the rest of the linebacker group. “I feel like this is one of the deepest defenses we’ve had in a while.”

He didn’t just mean the starters. The way he sees it, the whole group can contribute. “From starters to second string, it’s kind of one of those… like, I feel like we can plug and play,” Holcomb added. “There’s confidence all the way through.”

That depth and Holcomb’s return could be a major storyline in 2025. The addition of Jalen Ramsey has set a different tone with the defensive unit. It’s created an atmosphere of intensity I haven’t seen in years. Ramsey, Darius Slay the newcomers and the returning Steelers in TJ Watt, Cam Heyward, Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson and Jory Porter Jr. round out an elite crew.

This isn’t just another training camp success story. This is a statement. A warning. A reminder that comebacks don’t happen by chance they happen through pain, patience, and persistence.

And now, the Steelers get to write the next chapter with Cole Holcomb back in the middle of it.