The Pittsburgh Steelers will close out their 2018 regular season on Sunday with a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals and ahead of that contest head coach Mike Tomlin updated the health of his team during his weekly Tuesday afternoon press conference.
“On the injury front, Sean Davis has a quad, he’s downstairs managing it right now,” Tomlin said of the team’s starting safety. “We’ll see where that leads us in terms of his participation throughout the week and ultimately play. Vince Williams went down in the game with a toe. That’s being evaluated. His availability is in question, obviously we’ll watch him throughout the course of the week in terms of his practice participation. And the same thing with James Conner. I thought his participation was on the upswing at the end of last week with his ankle. We’ll be watching him close and seeing if he’s able to be a positive contributor to our efforts this week. And obviously his practice participation and effectiveness will be a major factor in that.”
While all three of those players Tomlin mentioned on Tuesday, safety Sean Davis, linebacker Vince Williams and running back James Conner, all sounding questionable to start the week, Tomlin sounded optimistic that at least a few of them might be able to play Sunday against the Bengals. Conner has missed the last there games with his high ankle sprain and did not practice any last week.
“Right now we’re not ready to paint with a broad brush and exclude those guys,” Tomlin said. “We’re going to leave the light on for them. I know that’s their mentality. It was just expressed to me by Davis downstairs and you like that. The guys better have a lean-in mentality this time of year and those guys do.”
The Steelers first injury report of Week 17 will be released at the conclusion of the team’s Wednesday practice and we should expect at least those three players to be listed on it in some capacity.
