On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said that the team will possibly look at options when it comes to the returner role this week on the heels of wide receiver Gunner Olszewski putting the football on the ground in Sunday’s home loss to the New York Jets. It now looks like the head coach has decided to make a change for the Week 5 road game against the Buffalo Bills.
According to Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Wednesday, wide receiver Steven Sims has indicated that he’ll be the team’s returner on Sunday against the Bills.
“I am going to get a shot this weekend,” said Sims after practice on Wednesday, according to Teresa Varley of steelers.com. “I am excited about that. I can’t wait to see what happens. It’s going to be a good weekend.
“It’s been a little while. I am excited, though. I am ready.”
The Steelers originally signed Sims to their practice squad to start the 2021 regular season. He had spent his previous two seasons with the Washington Football Team on his way to registering 61 receptions for 575 yards and five touchdowns. Sims also did returner work with Washington as well.
The Steelers elevated Sims to the active roster for one game in 2021 and the wide receiver played all of five offensive snaps in that Week 10 game. He did not register any stats, however. Late in the 2021 season, Sims spent a week on the practice squad COVID-19 list as well.
In two seasons with Washington, Sims returned 30 punts for 186 yards. He also returned 35 kickoffs for 861 yards and a touchdown while with Washington.
On Tuesday, Tomlin hinted a change at returner could be on the way when asked about his current comfort level with Olszewski following him fumbling a second time in the team’s last three games.
“Not very high, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said. “You can’t put two balls on the ground in four games and feel good about it. Two is a pattern in the National Football League. We say that often. We say that about runners and ball security. Whether there’s four games or eight games of 12 games, two, in our business, is a pattern. So, we’ve got some work there this week and some decisions to make and he’s got to get us to a level of comfort, and we’ll look at some other options as well.”
There is now a strong chance that Olszewski will be inactive on Sunday against the Bills. Sims has yet to be active for as game this season.
In four games this season, Olszewski has five punt returns for 36 yards and two kickoff returns for 19 yards. He has fumbled two punts this season with one of them being lost in the team’s home loss against the New England Patriots.
The Steelers signed Olszewski to a two-year, $4.2 million free agent contract back in March. He received a $1.235 million signing bonus as part of that deal.
