During his Tuesday press conference Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked to give a status update on rookie guard David DeCastro, who suffered a serious right knee injury in the third preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.
“He ran yesterday in a straight line as part of rehabilitation and I thought it was positive,” said Tomlin. “I think how he responds to those workouts of course is going to be a critical component, but there is a certain period of time that he has to go through before he is even eligible to come back, so we haven\’t spent a lot of time discussing his status or his progress. I just happened to look over there and had seen him running.”
DeCastro was placed on the Steelers injured reserve list prior to the start of the season and was given the new 8 week return designation. That designation stipulates that the Stanford product must miss at least 8 weeks before he is eligible to return to the 53 man roster. Once DeCastro does begin practicing with the team the Steelers will have a 21 day window in which they must decide to activate him back to the 53 man roster or place him on the season enduing injury reserve list.
The last report a few weeks ago was that DeCastro was able to ride a stationary bike, so the news on Tuesday that he has started running on a straight line is encouraging to say the least.
