Due to a Lisfranc injury suffered several weeks ago during a training camp practice, Pittsburgh Steelers second-year cornerback Senquez Golson will more than likely start the 2016 season on the team’s Reserve/Injured list and hopefully be candidate for the designated to return tag later on in the year. On Tuesday, the Steelers former second-round draft pick out of Mississippi provided an update on his rehab now that he’s had surgery.
According to Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Golson told the media Tuesday morning that he’s currently seven weeks away from returning to action.
While that certainly does sound like an encouraging timetable, we’ll have to see if Golson will actually be able to achieve it. After suffering his injury, many estimated that he would be sidelined for three or four months.
Golson said Tuesday he’ll definitely be back this season and that the cleats he was wearing when he suffered his injury may have been contributing factor to the seriousness of it, according to Chris Bradford of The Beaver County Times.
It will be interesting to see how the Steelers handle Golson over the course of the next few weeks. While he will be eligible to be placed on the team’s Reserve/Injured list next Tuesday without having to first go through waivers, doing so then would mean that he wouldn’t be eligible for the designated to return tag later on in the season.
In order for Golson to be a candidate for that designated to return tag, he will need to be on the Steelers initial 53-man roster after the final round of cuts are made. At that point, the Steelers can then place the young cornerback on their Reserve/Injured list as a candidate to possibly return at a later point.
It should be noted, however, that teams can only choose one player to have the designated to return tag with the only difference this year being that they don’t have to make that decision upon placing a player on their Reserve/Injured list.
Golson has yet to play in a preseason or regular season game since being drafted by the Steelers in 2015 as his entire rookie season was wiped out by a shoulder injury.
Golson reportedly had surgery to repair his injured foot during the first week of August.
