Damoun Patterson was a training camp darling around St. Vincent College and among Steelers Nation. His rookie year ended on a sour note, going down with injury in the preseason finale, landing on IR, and released with an injury settlement.
Now, he’s playing for someone else.
According to The Athletic’s Greg Auman, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have signed Patterson to their practice squad.
Patterson has been making the tryout rounds for the last two weeks, visiting with the New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings among others.
He led all Steelers with nine receptions in the preseason, gaining 112 yards, and finding the end zone once, a pretty touchdown grab against the Philadelphia Eagles. Patterson suffered a hamstring injury in the finale versus the Carolina Panthers.
Former teammate Marcus Tucker also appears to be healthy. He visited with the Houston Texans today. On social media, he’s posted near daily videos of his workouts and even attended a recent Steelers’ game, vowing to come back soon. He too was released with an injury settlement.
One reason why players in those situations don’t circle back are due to NFL rules. The team who releases the player with an injury settlement must wait an additional three weeks to bring him back, while other teams are free to ink him as soon as the player is healthy. That’s to avoid teams from exploiting the injury settlement system.
At receiver currently on the Steelers’ practice squad sits Trey Griffey and Tevin Jones. Both players were in training camp with the team and signed there after clearing waivers during final cutdowns. Eli Rogers remains on Reserve/PUP but is close to being eligible to return to the team. It’s unclear how he fits into the team’s plans moving forward.
