After the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, wide receiver Eli Rogers gave an indication on Twitter that the injury he had suffered late in the game wasn’t very serious. However, according to a Friday morning report by Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rogers’ injury turned out to be serious.
According to Dulac, Rogers tore his right ACL near the end of Sunday’s playoff loss to the Jaguars.
“I am fine. Thanks to all the fans for your concerns,” Rogers posted on Twitter after being observed using crutches in the team’s locker room following the loss to the Jaguars.
The Steelers young wide receiver and former undrafted free agent out of Louisville was seemingly injured when he got tripped up by Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith away from a fourth quarter play that resulted in a catch by tight end Vance McDonald for 15 yards. Rogers was eventually helped off the field by the Steelers medical staff and did not return to the game.
Rogers, who caught 5 passes for 42 yards against the Jaguars with one of those grabs being a great contested catch, had 18 catches for 149 yards and one touchdown during the regular season.
In all likelihood, Rogers will undergo surgery to repair his ACL, if he hasn’t already. With the injury happening so late in the season, there’s a good chance he might not be able to practice all offseason and perhaps not even by the time the team starts training camp. This assumes that he is even under contract as he’s scheduled to become a restricted free agent at the start of the new league year in March.
