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: Which of the Steelers’ four players remaining on the Reserve/Covid-19 List will be available for their next game against the Washington Football Team?
While all of the attention was on the Baltimore Ravens over the past week and a half as far as handling the coronavirus goes, the Steelers also placed five players on the Reserve/Covid-19 List themselves over a span of six days.
Stephon Tuitt, Isaiah Buggs, and Jerald Hawkins were added to the list on November 27, with James Conner joining them on the 28th. Then center Maurkice Pouncey was added to the list prior to Wednesday’s game on December 2.
Buggs was quick to come off in just three days, as he clearly was identified only as a close contact. If the others were close contacts, aside from Pouncey, they likely would have been activated by now, so that implies that those remaining on the list tested positive for Covid-19.
Tuitt and Hawkins were placed on the list the earliest, on the 27th. Generally, players test positive the day before they are placed on the list due to the results typically coming in after the transaction deadline.
A 10-day window, therefore, would have likely begun on last Thursday for Tuitt and Hawkins, which would end on Sunday. Conner’s would end on Monday, if we assume day-before transmissions. In theory, that puts them in the running for returning before Monday’s game against the Washington Football Team.
