The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their Week 17 against the Cleveland Browns on Monday night at Heinz Field, and that means the team will have an extra day of preparation. On Tuesday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held his weekly press conference, and during it he gave a brief overview of the health of the team ahead of the Monday night game against the Browns
“From an injury standpoint, again, like I mentioned, we’ve got an additional day, we are attaching it to the front side of the week, Tomlin said. “Hopefully that lets guys who’ve missed some time and who are working their way back to us, like [Pat] Freiermuth, like [Kevin] Dotson and others, some guys that sustain injuries in game; K.G. [Kendrick Green], Trai Turner and others, to have an opportunity to work their way back to us. Some COVID guys, potentially, and you guys have that list, Devon Bush, and others. Hopefully that means they get back to us sooner rather than later and have an opportunity to be active participants in the development of the plan and work in terms of some physical readiness for play.”
Injured during the Sunday game against the Kansas City Chiefs were center Kendrick Green (calf) and guard Trai Turner (knee), so hopefully the extra day of preparation will allow for them both to be ready to play Monday night.
The Steelers had several players miss the teams Week 16 game with injuries, COVID and other reasons. That list of players includes defensive end Chris Wormley (groin), tight end Pat Freiermuth (concussion), inside linebacker Buddy Johnson (foot), punter Pressley Harvin III (personal), linebacker Devin Bush (COVID list), inside linebacker Marcus Allen (COVID list), defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs (COVID list), tackle Zach Banner (COVID list), and running back Anthony McFarland Jr. (COVID list).
As for Harvin, it’s unclear if the rookie punter will be available Monday night against the Browns after his father passed away on Christmas morning. If he’s not, Tomlin made it clear that the team has no issues letting newly acquired punter Corliss Waitman fill in again like he did this past Sunday.
“I know that the services for his father are at some point this week,” Tomlin said of Harvin. “It’s our intention to be extremely supportive of him. We’ve been in communication with him. We’ll see where the roads lead and, in the meanwhile, I’ll say that I’m really pleased and appreciative of Corliss [Waitman] and glad that we were able to reacquire him. Our previous past shared experiences I think really provided a lot of comfort for us going into the stadium in Kansas City and if we need to use him again, I’m sure, particularly with an additional week’s work, we’ll have an increased level of comfort this week.”
The Steelers also hope to get guard Kevin Dotson (ankle) back from the Reserve/Injured list this week after he resumed practicing last week. As for defensive end Stephon Tuitt, who has missed the entire season to date on the Reserve/Injured list, Tomlin refused to provide any update on him on Tuesday.
