Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Byron Leftwich was obviously banged up quite a bit in the 13-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night and reports early Monday suggest that he could miss some time moving forward as a result.
Jason La Canfora reports Monday via Twitter that the Steelers are concerned Leftwich could be out for a while due to the injuries suffered Sunday night.
Head coach Mike Tomlin did not mention Leftwich specifically in his post game injury recap, but did say that other players with bumps and bruises were still being evaluated.
Leftwich was asked after the game about his injuries and unconvincingly said, “I\’m OK, I\’m Ok.”
It was reported during the game that Leftwich was being checked on the Steelers sideline for a rib injury and Tomlin addressed that during his talk after the game.
“Obviously, he sustained some hits but that’s football, particularly when you’re talking about this matchup,” Tomlin said. “He did a nice job of communicating where he was and, more than anything, we just wanted to do a nice job of communicating.”
The Steelers will obviously be without starter Ben Roethlisberger for at least a couple of more weeks and maybe longer. Should Leftwich wind up being hurt serious enough to miss time, it would leave Pittsburgh with only one healthy quarterback on the roster in veteran Charlie Batch.
The obvious names that have been floated out there are David Garrard and Tyler Palko. Tomlin said last week following the injury to Roethlisberger that Garrard wasn\’t in the picture at that time, but it doesn\’t mean that he might not be now. Palko of course played for offensive coordinator Todd Haley when the two were with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Steelers could also decide to bring back training camp quarterback Jerrod Johnson to the practice squad as a precaution.
Tomlin will meet the media again on Tuesday for his regular scheduled press conference and we should know a little bit more about the situation and plans moving forward at that time in regard to the injured.
