The Pittsburgh Steelers held their annual condition test on Thursday after the team had reported to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe for the start of their 2019 training camp and while all players seemingly finished the test, outside linebacker T.J. Watt did experience some hamstring tightness after completing his. Because of that, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said Thursday evening during his press conference that Watt might need to start training camp off on the team’s Active PUP list.
“No real, issues in the run test,” Tomlin said Thursday. “T.J. Watt did experience some tightness in his left hamstring after the completion of the last rep so we may PUP him and put him on the PUP list, saying that he’s not available at the initial onset tomorrow morning. He may be on for a very short period of time. We’re evaluating that as we speak. Again, he was able to complete the test, he just experienced some tightness there at the end so we’ll do whats appropriate from that standpoint.”
Not long after his press conference ended, the Steelers officially placed watt on the active/PUP list.
Watt, in case you forgot, missed training camp time last year due to a hamstring injury. That injury resulted in him only playing in one preseason game last year. Watt was, however, fully healthy come the start of the 2018 regular season and he went on to play in all 16 games. He finished last season with 68 tackles, 13 sacks, 3 passed defensed and 6 forced fumbles.
With Watt now officially sidelined for the start of training camp, other outside linebackers such as Olasunkanmi Adeniyi and Anthony Chickillo will likely get a few extra reps with the latter likely to get the majority of first-team snaps. The Steelers also have young outside linebackers JT Jones, Tuzar Skipper and Sutton Smith, a sixth-round draft pick this year, on their roster.
