The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Los Angeles Chargers on the road Sunday night and on Tuesday head coach Mike Tomlin updated the health of his team during his weekly press conference.
First, Tomlin made sure to point out that quarterback Mason Rudolph is still in concussion protocol following him needing to leave the Sunday loss to the Baltimore Ravens following a hit in the third quarter from safety Earl Thomas.
“He was in the building yesterday,” Tomlin said of Rudolph. “He appears to be doing fine just in terms of communicating with him. But obviously I won’t have a lot of detail in terms of where he is in the protocol or speculating what that is and the timetable of it, because I’ve been at this long enough to know that I’m not a medical expert. We’ve got a great deal of confidence in our medical experts and the independent neuro people that are involved in his process and they’ll do their due diligence and when he’s available to us, he’s available to us.
“But just from interacting with him and seeing him, it’s good to see him. Obviously, he appears to be doing fine and has expressed that and that’s really all I have in terms of intimate details regarding him or his status or what the week could potentially look like. I just don’t want to get into the speculation that could be endless.”
Tomlin also updated other injuries that took place in Sunday’s home loss to the Ravens.
“James Washington is still being evaluated with his shoulder,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “He’s probably got questionable availability. Mark Barron also with his hamstring. Steve Nelson is new with a groin injury. We’ll monitor him and his participation throughout the week and let that be our guide for his availability.”
Wide receiver James Washington injured his shoulder in the second half of Sunday’s game while inside linebacker Mark Barron left the contest in the first half with his hamstring injury. Neither player returned to the game after they exited it. It’s unknown when cornerback Steven Nelson suffered his groin injury on Sunday, but Tomlin made it sound on Tuesday as if he has a chance to play against the Chargers.
Tomlin also announced on Tuesday that running back Jaylen Samuels suffered knee injury on Sunday and that he’ll now likely be sidelined for several weeks.
“And the new one significantly to mention is Jaylen Samuels had his knee scope yesterday,” Tomlin said. “He had a knee sprain. He’s roughly going to be out a month, but as we get closer through this process, we’ll know what the timetable looks like in terms of that. That’s something that showed up after the game, even after I visited with you guys or while I was visiting with you guys after the game. We had him evaluated and saw that that was necessary. So, we made the decision to fix it and fix it ASAP and it was fixed yesterday.”
Tomlin also updated the condition of two other players that have been sidelined the last several weeks, fullback Roosevelt Nix (knee) and outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo (foot).
“Some of the previous guys that have dealt with injury appear to be moving in a positive way, Tomlin said Tuesday. “We’ll see and check their availability based on participation through the week. Those guys are Chickillo and Rosie Nix. And Vance McDonald, who missed the previous game, appears to be no worse for the wear with his participation in the last performance.”
Nix has been out since Week 1 with his knee injury while Chickillo has missed the last three games with his foot injury.
