The Pittsburgh Steelers thirteenth training cap practice of 2018 is now well underway and the Sunday session at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe includes several players sitting out with injuries.
According to our very own Alex Kozora, sitting out Sunday are outside linebacker T.J. Watt (hamstring), Bud Dupree (concussion), tight end Vance McDonald (foot), tight end Xavier Grimble (thumb), safety Sean Davis (groin), guard Parker Collins (undisclosed) and safety Marcus Allen (undisclosed).
For what it’s worth, Watt now appears to be doing more and more prior to practices. He and McDonald have been sidelined for most of this year’s training camp and both aren’t expected to play in the Steelers second preseason game Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers.
“Nothing’s changed,” head coach Mike Tomlin said of McDonald’s status after practice ended. “When it does change significantly in terms of progress toward return to play, I’ll update you guys.”
While Steelers center/guard B.J. Finney (quad) was back on the field with his teammates on Sunday, he only participated in the individual sessions and was then held out of the team period. It’s unclear still if Finney will be healthy enough to play against the Packers Thursday night. He suffered his quad contusion in the Steelers preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles this past Thursday night.
“Finney worked in a partial-like capacity and it’s good to get some of those guys back,” Tomlin said after practice
Running back James Conner (lower body) also sat out the team portion of practice on Sunday with a wrap on his right leg, according to Kozora. Conner did work in individual and one-on one-drills, however. Fellow running back Stevan Ridley also failed to finish practice on Sunday and Tomlin was asked about the status of him and Conner and if he just decided to shut both players down early.
“Yeah I did,” Tomlin said. “I wanted to see some of those younger guys. Again, like I’ve said to you guys repeatedly, there’s gonna be unique rotations, particularly as we get into this thing. I want to see certain guys in certain situations and so that might mean minimizing some other guys. It’s just a part of it. The big thing is at the end, we’re gonna give everybody a fair evaluation. It might not be fair in terms of an allocation of reps, but we have knowledge about certain guys that we don’t have about others. So, from that standpoint, everybody will be getting a fair opportunity.”
