The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a few injuries in their Monday night home win over the Miami Dolphins and on Tuesday head coach Mike Tomlin updated the statuses of those several players during his weekly press conference.
Tomlin started with an update on running back James Conner, who left the Monday night game left with an injured AC joint in his shoulder.
“James Conner does have a shoulder injury, it’s in the process of being evaluated right now as we speak,” Tomlin said. “So, I don’t have a lot of information. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to limit him surely at the early portions of the week. James has played enough ball; I’m starting to get comfortable with him. Maybe it doesn’t require a complete week of work in an effort for him to play like it does some younger players. So, we’ll play it by ear. We’ll check his availability on a day-to-day basis and let that be our guide in terms of his availability.”
Next, Tomlin updated the condition of guard Ramon Foster, who failed to play the second half of the Monday night game due to a concussion he had suffered in the first half.
“Ramon Foster’s in the concussion protocol,” Tomlin said Tuesday. That’s a mystical place from my standpoint. Man, when they tell me he’s back, he’s back. Until then, we’ll make other plans accordingly. I like to work with B.J. Finney in his absence.”
Tomlin then proceeded to update the conditions of defensive tackle Daniel McCullers, center Maurkice Pouncey and running back Benny Snell Jr.
“Dan McCullers had a minor ankle, it may limit him some at the beginning of the week,” Tomlin said. “We’ll see where that takes us. Maurkice Pouncey had a calf, same thing. Benny Snell had a knee that didn’t allow him to finish the game and that’s being evaluated as we speak. May limit him and he’s the type of guy that if he gets limited because of youth and inexperience, it may affect his availability.”
It certainly sounds like Snell is very questionable on a short week, according to Tomlin, who made sure to point out on Tuesday that running back Jaylen Samuels should be back for the Sunday home game against the Indianapolis Colts.
“So, we’ll see where the week leads us with two running backs kind of being treated in some form or fashion,” Tomlin said Tuesday. Man, Jaylen Samuels’ availability is right on time. Jaylen really got a clean bill of health at the end of last week, was available to us. Because of lack of work and really the work of the others, we chose not to play him. He’ll be ready to go in this football game.”
The Steelers first injury report of Week 9 will be released on Wednesday and we can probably expect quite a few players to sit out the first practice of the week.
