The Pittsburgh Steelers first week of OTA practices for the 2019 season are now in the books and as it turns out, the team did have one starting offensive lineman not in attendance for the three sessions at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
According to a Thursday afternoon report by Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and via guard Ramon Foster, veteran guard David DeCastro missed all three OTA practices this week due to his wife giving birth recently to the couple’s second child.
DeCastro missing the start of OTAs obviously isn’t a big deal and especially when you consider that the practices are deemed voluntary to attend in addition to him being a very experienced player. It’s unclear if DeCastro will be present for next week’s OTA practices so we’ll have to wait and see if he’s ultimately in attendance.
DeCastro, the Steelers first-round selection in the 2012 NFL Draft out of Stanford, was voted to his fourth straight Pro Bowl last season. However, he ultimately did back out of the annual NFL All-Star game due to an undisclosed injury. Last season DeCastro played in 14 regular season games as he missed two early in the year due to a fractured hand.
By the sound of things, DeCastro was the lone player to miss all of this week’s OTA practices. However, safety Jordan Dangerfield, as previously reported, was also absent for Thursday’s practice so that he could participate in his college graduation in Maryland.
Congratulations to the DeCastro’s on the new addition to their family and we hope mother and baby are both doing fine.
