The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their third preseason game of 2016 Friday night against the New Orleans Saints and at the conclusion of Monday’s practice, head coach Mike Tomlin gave a general outline as to which players will see playing time in that contest.
“Our mentality right now is that all healthy guys will play in the game in some form or fashion,” said Tomlin. “We haven’t thought about specifics in terms of how much and so forth, but I’m sure we’ll harden that up as the week goes on. But right now, all those that are healthy are preparing to play and I think that’s a good mentality to have. That’s where we are in the team development process.”
Tomlin also gave updates on a few players who are slowly working their way back from injuries.
“A lot of the guys that are dealing with training camp-like injuries are starting to work their way back to us a little bit,” said Tomlin. “Guys like [Anthony] Chickillo, guys like Levi Norwood that hasn’t worked, are starting to work at least in a partial capacity. So from a health standpoint, in general things are moving in a positive direction.”
While Tomlin did provide minor updates on outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo and wide receiver Levi Norwood, he didn’t say anything about outside linebackers Bud Dupree and Jarvis Jones, or wide receiver Markus Wheaton. All three of those players sat out the team’s first two preseason games with injuries that had limited their practice time during training camp. Additionally, Tomlin didn’t provide an update on cornerback Artie Burns or tackle Jerald Hawkins.
Tomlin will hold his weekly pre-game press conference Wednesday afternoon so perhaps then he’ll update the game-status of those several injured players during that time as well as laying out projected playing time amounts for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, wide receiver Antonio Brown and DeAngelo Williams, all of whom were held out of the team’s first two preseason games.
