Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin met the media today following the opening day conditioning run test to kick off training camp. Tomlin said that he liked the conditioning overall of the group and noted specifically that the young offensive linemen looked good.
Tomlin announced the Steelers will place six players on the Active PUP list to start camp and those players are: linebacker James Harrison, linebacker Jason Worilds, nose tackle Casey Hampton, safety Damon Cromartie-Smith, tackle Max Starks and running back Rashard Mendenhall.
Hampton, Starks and Mendenhall are all of course coming off ACL injuries and all were expected to start camp on the Active PUP list. Harrison should not be too much of a surprise either as he missed all but the first week of OTA\’s with a knee problem of sorts. As I mentioned the other day, they will likely ease him into action initially.
Worilds still seems to not be fully recovered from his offseason wrist surgery that forced him to miss all of the offseason practices as a result. Linebackers coach Keith Butler did not guarantee fully that Worilds would be ready for the start and alas he isn\’t.
Cromartie-Smith was the only name that I would deem a surprise. According to Tomlin he is still recovering from an offseason shoulder surgery.
The good news is that neither wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders nor running back Baron Batch were on the list. Last season Sanders missed time early on in camp after undergoing surgeries on both his feet. Batch now appears completely healed from his torn ACL suffered late in training camp last year. Stevenson Sylvester and Curtis Brown, two few players that missed a little time during the offseason with minor ailments, were also not listed today either.
The six players listed on Active PUP can\’t practice until removed from the list. If they are removed from the list at any time before the start of the season, they will be ineligible for the Reserve PUP list to start the regular season.
