The Pittsburgh Steelers will open their 2019 preseason Friday night at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and you can count on numerous players sitting out that contest. On Wednesday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin not shockingly announced that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not play Friday night. While he didn’t officially rule out any other players for the team’s preseason opener, it’s not hard to build a list of those who might not play due to them being injured, being a seasoned veteran, or both.
During Wednesday’s training camp practice our very own Alex Kozora passed along a long list of players that did not fully participate in the session. That list of 12 players included defensive end Cameron Heyward (personal), center Maurkice Pouncey (back?), guard Ramon Foster (undisclosed), wide receiver Diontae Johnson (groin), cornerback Artie Burns (groin), outside linebacker Bud Dupree (undisclosed), outside linebacker Sutton Smith (undisclosed), cornerback Brian Allen (undisclosed), cornerback Justin Layne (undisclosed), tackle Jerald Hawkins (undisclosed). inside linebacker Vince Williams (hamstring) and running back Ralph Webb. Webb, by the way, was waived as injured by the team on Thursday.
While there might ultimately be a few of those 12 players listed above that end up playing Friday night, most on that list probably won’t.
In addition to those players already named, don’t expect cornerback Joe Haden (ankle), outside linebacker T.J. Watt, wide receiver Donte Moncrief (finger), wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, tackle Alejandro Villanueva (shoulder), guard David DeCastro, tight end Vance McDonald, running back James Conner or safety Sean Davis (finger) to play Friday night against the Buccaneers. It’s also possible that defensive end Stephon Tuitt and fullback Roosevelt Nix will also being given Friday night off.
In total, 24 players are listed in this post thus far and one of those players, Webb, was waived Thursday morning and he’s sure to clear waivers and revert to the Steelers Reserve/Injured list on Monday. Already on the team’s Reserve/Injured list so far this summer are cornerback Derrek Thomas and cornerback Herb Waters. Rookie cornerback Alexander Myres is also now on the team’s Reserve/Non-Football Injury list. The Steelers have yet to reach injury settlements with any of those players.
After Watt was activated off the team’s Active/PUP list on Sunday, that list is now empty. Additionally, linebacker Ryan Shazier is on the team’s Reserve/PUP list after being placed there in late April.
