Will the Pittsburgh Steelers have starting right guard David DeCastro back for their Week 3 Monday night road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Its hard to answer that question right now and DeCastro even said on Monday he isn’t even sure when he’ll return to action as the team’s doctors haven’t told him.
“I think it’s one of the things they don’t really tell you on purpose so I can just keep hoping that I’m going to play,” DeCastro said, according to 93.7 The Fan. “You know what I mean? I can trick myself into playing and then you kinda just see how it goes day-by-day. I don’t think it’s one of those things where, you know, I was thinking about it, because they never told me, like, it’s going to be three weeks, it’s going to be one week, it’s going to be ten weeks.
“It’s just one of those things where you just try to do everything you can in the best power that day to heal it and you know, you see where you’re at the next day and see if you can play. Ultimately, if I can do it, I’ll go. If I can’t, I can’t.”
DeCastro was then asked if he currently feels like he can play Monday night against the Buccaneers from a physical standpoint.
“I have no idea,” DeCastro said. “You know, it’s Monday.”
DeCastro was then asked to confirm that he indeed suffered a broken bone in his hand when he injured it against the Cleveland Browns in Week 1.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s the hand, so it’s just one of those things where you just got to be smart with it,” DeCastro said.
More than anything, DeCastro let it be known on Monday that he doesn’t want to rush back too soon from his hand injury and wind up missing more time as a result of doing that.
“It’s just making sure it’s protected and I don’t make it worse,” DeCastro said. “I don’t want to take one step forward and four steps back and miss more time. So, they got a good staff, they’re not worried about it, they’re being smart and we’re all being smart and I want to get back out there as much as possible. This is abnormal for me and I don’t like it, but it’s part of it, unfortunately.”
With DeCastro missing the Steelers Sunday game against the Kansas City Chiefs with his hand injury, backup interior offensive lineman B.J. Finney started in his place at right guard. DeCastro said on Monday that he thought the former undrafted free agent out of Kansas State represented himself well against the Chiefs.
“B.J. filled in great and it’s one of those things where hopefully I’m back out there, but I can’t make any promises,” DeCastro said.
If DeCastro misses the game against the Buccaneers then Finney will once again start in his absence and that would also mean that backup offensive lineman Matt Feiler would likely dress again just as he did Sunday against the Chiefs. Feiler only played a few snaps on special teams against the Chiefs.
