Even though the final injury report of Week 14 won’t be out until Friday afternoon, we now know for sure that Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner won’t play Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
On Thursday, Conner, who has missed the team’s last two games and four in total since Week 8 with a shoulder injury, told the media that he will not play on Sunday against the Cardinals. He was previously listed on the team’s Wednesday injury report as being a limited practice participant earlier in the day.
Conner’s announcement on Thursday that he won’t play Sunday against the Cardinals isn’t overly surprising as he alluded to that possibly being the case during his Monday radio show appearance. Conner is doing his best to avoid shoulder surgery and needs to strengthen his injury before returning to the field
With Conner sidelined again this weekend the Steelers are likely to use a mix of running backs Jaylen Samuels, Benny Snell Jr. and Kerrith Whyte Jr. against the Cardinals They also have running back Trey Edmunds on their 53-man roster if needed.
In addition to the Steelers not having Conner on Sunday against the Cardinals the team will also be without wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster for their Week 14 road contest as well. Smith-Schuster, who just resumed running on Wednesday, pretty much ruled himself out when he talked to the media.
Will Conner be able to return to action in Week 15 for the team’s Week 15 home game against the Buffalo Bills? We’ll see if we get clues needed to answer that question starting on Monday when Conner appears on his weekly radio show.
