The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is underway, and they are hoping for a better outcome in comparison to last season. After starting out 11-0, they finished the year 1-4 in the regular season, and then lost in the Wildcard Round to the Cleveland Browns, ignited by a 0-28 first quarter.
They have lost a large number of key players in the offseason, like Maurkice Pouncey, Bud Dupree, Alejandro Villanueva, David DeCastro, Mike Hilton, and Steven Nelson, but they’ve also made significant additions as the months have gone on, notably Trai Turner, Melvin Ingram, Joe Schobert, and Ahkello Witherspoon. They also added Najee Harris, Pat Freiermuth, Kendrick Green, and Dan Moore Jr., all of whom are starting.
There isn’t much left to do but to play the games at this point. Even if they play them poorly. They still have a lot to figure out, though, such as what Matt Canada’s offense is going to look like in any given week, or how the new-look secondary and offensive line is going to play.
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. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: When will the Steelers get Carlos Davis back from injury?
For the past two weeks, the Steelers have been operating with just five defensive linemen, two of those being rookie Isaiahh Loudermilk and second-year Henry Mondeaux, who has started each of the past two seasons on the practice squad.
They had eight on the initial 53-man roster, including Mondeaux, though he was quickly moved to the practice squad. Then Stephon Tuitt was immediately removed from the Reserve/Injured List, and it’s not clear when he will be available.
Then they lost Tyson Alualu for presumably the rest of the season with a fractured ankle. Mondeaux was brought back up to the 53-man roster when that happened, but Carlos Davis has been sidelined for the past two weeks while dealing with a knee injury.
This defensive line doesn’t have a whole lot to offer outside of Cameron Heyward right now. Chris Wormley and Isaiah Buggs are doing well enough as could be expected, but are a major downgrade from Tuitt and Alualu.
And they would both make excellent reserves, but instead they’re now dealing with Loudermilk and Mondeaux as their direct reserves. At least getting Davis back gives them a little something extra, but head coach Mike Tomlin did not even update his status yesterday.
A seventh-round pick last year, Davis worked his way up the depth chart over the course of his rookie season. He put in a good summer this year, and would be in line for a bigger role if he could just get back on the field. Right now, he would be splitting the nose tackle position with Buggs. Instead, they’re having to find ways to get others in that role piece by piece.
