The Pittsburgh Steelers are now into the regular season, following the most unique offseason in the NFL since at least World War II. While it didn’t involve a player lockout, teams still did not have physical access to their players, though they were at least able to meet with them virtually.
Even training camp looked much different from the norm, and a big part of that was the fact that there will be no games along the way to prepare for. Their first football game of the year was to be the opener against the New York Giants.
As the season progresses, however, there will be a number of questions that arise on a daily basis, and we will do our best to try to raise attention to them as they come along, in an effort to both point them out and to create discussion
Questions like, how will the players who are in new positions this year going to perform? Will the rookies be able to contribute significantly? How will Ben Roethlisberger look—and the other quarterbacks as well? Now, we even have questions about whether or not players will be in quarantine.
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: Will Tyson Alualu be available for Sunday’s game?
Although he has technically only been out for one game, Tyson Alualu has been unavailable for what is essentially two games now, after suffering a knee injury early in the Baltimore Ravens contest almost two weeks ago.
It was just the second time in his career that he has missed a game due to injury. So far this week, he has gotten in two days of limited practice. If he does not go full today, I would expect it is unlikely that they would rush him back on the field.
They may not have to, as the Cincinnati Bengals are arguably the worst rushing offense in the league, or at least among the worst, and they may, once again, be without Joe Mixon on top of that. Giovani Bernard has never been a feature back.
Meanwhile, left tackle Jonah Williams has only gotten limited work making his way back from a stinger, while right tackle Bobby Hart is not practicing due to a knee injury—and backup tackle Fred Johnson is on the Covid-19 List as a positive case.
The Bengals should, in theory, have a difficult time running the ball, but the Steelers have been underperforming in this area for the past two weeks as well. Mike Hilton looks to be on his way back (possibly?), which should help some, but getting Alualu back, I think, would make a bigger difference. Not, however, at the expense of his health.
