It’s yet to be seen whether or not the Pittsburgh Steelers will have running back DeAngelo Williams available to them Saturday in their AFC Wild Card game against the Cincinnati Bengals but judging by the comments made Tuesday during his weekly press conference, head coach Mike Tomlin sure didn’t sound overly optimistic that he’ll play.
“He’s being evaluated and getting treatment as we speak,” said Tomlin of Williams. “I just spoke with him probably about 10 minutes ago. He can be characterized as day-to-day. I don’t know what his availability will be in terms of the game. Like we do in all instances, we’ll let practice availability, and, or participation be our guide in terms of what to expect from him. We’ll give him an opportunity to do that if he’s capable and then we’ll have daily discussions and planning regarding that.”
Tomlin later added that Williams is dealing with a foot injury and not an ankle injury.
“I think technically it’s not an ankle, it’s a foot, but I’ll let the experts talk about that in detail. I tend to trip over myself when I do,” said Tomlin.
Tomlin went on to say that the team will ready backups Fitzgerald Toussaint and Jordan Todman while Williams works on his recovery and he really dedicated a lot of time praising the former, who was promoted from the practice squad several weeks ago.
As we reported earlier on Tuesday, Williams is hoping to shed the walking boot that he’s currently wearing on his right foot by Saturday. In other words, it will be surprising if he practices at all this week being as Friday will be a travel day.
As far as other injuries go, wide receiver Martavis Bryant and linebacker Jarvis Jones are both expected to play against the Bengals after suffering minor undisclosed injuries in Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns.
