With Pittsburgh Steelers rookie running back Le\’Veon Bell already ruled out for the third preseason game Saturday night against the Kansas City Chiefs, head coach Mike Tomlin said Thursday during his press conference that he\’s still unsure what running back rotation he\’ll use in the game.
“Really it just depends on who\’s available,” said Tomlin.
Tomlin is hoping to have Isaac Redman and LaRod Stephens-Howling available Saturday night after both were forced to sit out the Monday night game against the Washington Redskins.
“We\’re going to have an inclusive-type mentality,” said Tomlin about the injured players. “We\’re going to leave the door open for people that are nursing minor injuries or are working themselves back. Guys like Isaac Redman, who experienced a stinger, well leave the light on for him. LaRod Stephens-Howling, who has a minor MCL sprain, who is participating today, we\’ll see what that participation looks like.”
Also injured Monday night were running back Baron Batch (stinger) and fullback Will Johnson (rib), but Tomlin didn\’t not specifically update the status of both. He did, however, update the status of tight end David Johnson, who was removed from the Active PUP list on Wednesday, even though he\’s not quite sure how he fits in the tight end picture at this point.
“I don\’t have the answer to that, because I\’ve just seen him work for one day,” said Tomlin about Johnson\’s role. “I really don\’t have an understanding of how his body\’s responding to that work, so it\’s hard to etch out a role or a division of labor for him without that understanding of what he can get done in a functional manner.
“We\’ll be watching him close and count his reps over the course of the next couple of days and seeing how he responds to the work and how he performs within the work. And that\’s just something we\’ll have to answer over the next couple of days.”
