During his initial rundown of the team’s injuries on Tuesday, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t mention quarterback Mike Vick, who has sat the last two games with a hamstring injury that he suffered early in the second half of Week 6 game against the Arizona Cardinals.
Because Tomlin didn’t mention Vick initially and prior to him taking questions from the media, he was asked if the veteran will now return to being the team’s No. 2 quarterback behind starter Ben Roethlisberger moving forward.
“I don’t know that he is [healthy],” said Tomlin of Vick. “We’ll see and that’s one that I failed to mention. I should have mentioned him along with Will Allen and Stephon Tuitt in terms of letting their participation, or their availability to participate, be our guide in terms of how we proceed.”
While Tomlin might not be sure if Vick is now healthy and ready to go, the quarterback said Monday during his talk with the media that he expects to practice this week ahead of the Sunday home game against the Oakland Raiders.
“It’s 100 percent,” Vick said of his hamstring, according to Jacob Klinger of PennLive.com.
Well, isn’t this awkward.
We’ll have to wait and see how the team’s official injury report shakes out the rest of the week and if Vick’s not listed on it, we’ll know for sure come Sunday whether or not fellow quarterback Landry Jones has overtaken him on the team’s depth chart. In my opinion, he should, based on the way he played in weeks 6 and 7. While Vick might be No. 2 in one off-color use of the label, he shouldn’t be the Steelers N0. 2 quarterback moving forward.
If, however, Vick is elevated back to being the backup to Roethlisberger, well, we’ll have quite a lot more to discuss.
Personally, I’m willing to bet that Vick shows up on the Wednesday injury report now that Tomlin did ultimately mention him during his press conference as that will give him a built-in excuse on Sunday for making him one the game’s seven inactive players and subsequently allowing Jones to serve as the No. 2 for a second-consecutive game.
