The Pittsburgh Steelers have now let wide receiver Eli Rogers resume practicing with the rest of the team as of Wednesday. The decision to open Rogers’ 21-day practice window was announced by the team on Twitter.
Rogers, who has been on the Steelers Reserve/PUP list all season, is now presumably fully recovered from the torn ACL that he suffered in last season’s playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. He seemingly suffered that knee injury 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, a former undrafted free agent out of Louisville, caught 5 passes for 42 yards against the Jaguars in that loss. He had 18 catches for 149 yards and one touchdown during the 2017 regular season.
The Steelers signed Rogers to a one-year minimum salary benefit contract at the start of this year’s training camp and immediately placed him on their Active/PUP list so that he could continue with his recovery from knee surgery. At the start of the 2018 regular season he was moved from the Active/PUP list to the Reserve/PUP list.
With Rogers resuming practicing on Wednesday the Steelers now have 21 days to decide if they want to activate him to their 53-man roster. Currently, the Steelers have full and healthy wide receiver depth chart in Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington, Ryan Switzer, Justin Hunter, and Darrius Heyward-Bey. In short, Rogers might need an injury at that the wide receiver position to take place in the next three weeks in order for him to find his way back to the 53-man roster.
