As expected, the Pittsburgh Steelers will start the 21-day clock this week on second-year linebacker Bud Dupree, who has been on the team’s Reserve/Injured list since the start of the regular season because of him needing a core muscle in his groin surgically repaired.
On Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin talked about Dupree continuing his process of working his way back to the team’s 53-man roster.
“If all goes well, we’ll start the process with Bud Dupree this week,” said Tomlin. “In terms of practicing, he’s been working a lot on the perimeter. We’ll start that process with him this week.”
While Dupree is not expected to be ready to play in Sunday’s home game against the Dallas Cowboys, Tomlin said Tuesday that they’ll let the quality of the linebacker’s practice and overall health determine when he does finally come back.
By the sound of things, Dupree has an outside chance of being activated as early as sometime next week and ahead of the Steelers game against the Cleveland Browns. With that said, the Steelers will have 21 days starting Tuesday to make a decision on their 2015 first-round draft pick. In other words, don’t be surprised if it takes a few weeks for him to finally start seeing any game-action.
Dupree missed most of training camp and all four preseason games due to his injury. He registered four sacks during his rookie season and all of those came during the team’s first eight games.
“We anticipate him coming back and being a component on our defense this year,” Tomlin said Tuesday.
