Coming out of the season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week One at Acrisure Stadium, the Pittsburgh Steelers are rather banged up.
Star defensive tackle Cameron Heyward is set for surgery on his groin, which knocked him from the 30-7 loss early on. Heyward is set to land on Injured Reserve and could miss up to eight weeks with the surgery.
Standout wide receiver Diontae Johnson is also expected to miss a couple of weeks with a hamstring injury suffered early in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss, hindering the offense quite a bit in the passing game.
Along with Heyward and Johnson, the Steelers have a number of players that are banged up coming out of the 30-7 beatdown from the 49ers, including tight end Pat Freiermuth (chest), right guard James Daniels (foot) and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi (foot), but head coach Mike Tomlin is “optimistic” that, though they will be limited early in the week, the trio will be good to go in Week Two against the Cleveland Browns.
“We’re more optimistic about those, particularly because we’ve got an additional day, day and a half of prep,” Tomlin said, according to video via the Steelers YouTube page. “We got an additional day and we’ll definitely take it and lean in on this next opportunity.”
Freiermuth suffered a chest injury in the second quarter of the loss to the 49ers, taking a hard hit from San Francisco safety Talanoa Hufanga in the end zone on a pass attempt from quarterback Kenny Pickett. After briefly leaving the game with the chest injury, Freiermuth returned and hauled in a 3-yard touchdown from Pickett before ultimately exiting the game in the second half.
Daniels played the entire game Sunday against the Niners, but he was spotted in a boot in the locker room Monday morning prior to practice. When a player is in a boot, it is usually a precaution, but Daniels is very clearly dealing with some bumps and bruises from the game, as Tomlin stated.
Ogunjobi entered the Week One matchup in a limited fashion after missing the entire preseason and then practicing in a limited capacity throughout the week before playing 43 snaps (63 percent) against the 49ers. Coming out of the game, defense tackle DeMarvin Leal was dealing with an arm/tricep injury and wide receiver Miles Boykin was in a boot Monday as well, but Tomlin did not list those two players by name.
The extra day of preparation should help the Steelers heal up as best as possible and get some key pieces back for the Monday Night Football matchup against the Browns. We’ll see just how limited names like Freiermuth, Daniels and Ogunjobi are moving forward this week, but Tomlin is optimistic about their availability. That’s good news.
