The Pittsburgh Steelers will host the Jacksonville Jaguars at Heinz Field in an AFC Divisional Round playoff game this coming Sunday and all signs continue to point to wide receiver Antonio Brown being able to participate in that contest.
Brown, who suffered a left calf injury during the first half of the Steelers Week 15 loss to the New England Patriots, hasn’t played since. The wide receiver, however, said Monday afternoon that he was glad to be back with his teammates at practice earlier in the day, according to Missi Matthews of steelers.com. Monday was a bonus practice day for the Steelers with them being on a bye last week.
Brown said after practice that he went through most drills on Monday in his first session back with the team, according to Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
“It went pretty smooth,” said Brown. “I am excited to be out there with the guys. I am grateful to be on my feet. There is still a lot to test. It’s the first day of the week. There is a lot of room to grow and improve.
“We’ll see how it goes, how we progress. I feel I was able to get through practice. I still have to get a little better, but it felt good to be out there. I was able to move around a little bit, get in the flow of things. I still have plenty of room to grow.”
The Steelers will resume practices on Wednesday and Brown is expected to be a participant in them in some capacity the remainder of the week. The wide receiver spent the weekend in South Florida training and running routes with former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson. In those several social media videos that both Brown and Johnson posted over the weekend the Steelers wide receiver didn’t appear to be limited much, if any, by his previous calf injury.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin will hold his weekly press conference on Tuesday and at that time he’s expected to give a very positive update on the health of Brown, who would have been considered as questionable this past weekend had the team not had a first-round playoff bye.
Steelers Antonio Brown returned to practice from a calf injury Monday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. pic.twitter.com/jl2oebNmuc
— Matt Freed (@mattfreedpghpg) January 8, 2018
