Although there is no practice for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday, it is a big day for linebacker James Harrison, who is waiting to see how his knee responds to practicing on Monday for the first time since the first OTA session.
Evidently the knee it is responding good, as Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported Tuesday afternoon on Twitter that Harrison gave him a thumbs up in the locker room today. There are no quotes, so that is all we have to go on at this point, but Harrison did say after practice on Monday that the knee felt OK.
Harrison, who missed all of training camp and the preseason, had a surgical scope procedure done on his troublesome left knee back in the middle of August. He was activated from the PUP list, where he has been listed since the start of camp, just prior to the preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers.
Head coach Mike Tomlin was asked during his Tuesday press conference if he had any expectations of where Harrison would be at this point in his rehab.
“I didn\’t have any, so that\’s probably an easy answer to the question,” said Tomlin. “James is a guy that is a competitor and I know that if it is within his power to be there and perform, and in particularly for his teammates, he will be. So I haven\’t had any reservations about him in that regard, the issue is just whether or not he gets a clean bill of health from our medical staff.
“He has to this point in terms of being able to practice,” added Tomlin. “We\’ll see how his body responds to that work and let that be a determinant about how we move forward.”
So far so good for Harrison it seems, but there are still three practices yet to go before he will be given an injury report designation Friday afternoon. Harrison figures to be listed as limited on both the Wednesday and Thursday practice participation reports, and he in all likelihood will be listed as questionable come Friday.
Even if Harrison does suit up and play Sunday night in Denver, he figures to be on a snap count. Second year linebacker Chris Carter received quite a bit of work at the right outside spot during the preseason and he figures to see a good portion of the snaps at the position regardless, as back up Jason Worilds, who is working his way back from offseason wrist surgery that forced him to miss the entire offseason program, training camp and the preseason, also just hit the practice field for the first time this season on Monday.
