With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 18 finale pushed up to Saturday, the first game of the final week, Mike Tomlin held his weekly press conference on Monday. Detailing the team’s health heading into its matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, Tomlin told reporters LB Elandon Roberts, S Minkah Fitzpatrick, and S Trenton Thompson are all “day-by-day” as they look to come back from their injuries.
“Elandon Roberts, we’ll play it day by day and see where it leads us in terms of his availability,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel. “Same with Minkah and Trenton Thompson. Don’t really know where we’re at right now. I’d be speculating. We’ll start with parital participation with all three.”
Pittsburgh came out of yesterday’s win over the Seattle Seahawks seemingly healthy with Tomlin only noting LB T.J. Watt’s injury as minor. Tomlin maintained that posture today.
“T.J. got hurt late in the game, hadn’t seen him yet today. Don’t anticipate it being a problem,” he said.
Watt was injured in a pile-up after rushing QB Geno Smith in the second half of Sunday’s game. He briefly missed time but returned to finish the game and is expected to play in Week 18.
Fitzpatrick, Thompson, and Roberts all missed the team’s Week 17 game against the Seahawks due to injury. Fitzpatrick and Thompson were injured in the Steelers’ Week 15 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Fitzpatrick injured his knee, Thompson a stinger in his neck, and coupled with Damontae Kazee’s suspension, that left the team perilously thin at safety. Over the last two games, Patrick Peterson has bumped from corner to safety and started opposite Eric Rowe, elevated off the team’s practice squad. Miles Killebrew has also seen a considerable bump in defensive snaps the last two weeks.
Roberts sustained a pec injury in the first half of Pittsburgh’s Week 16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Myles Jack has replaced him, including getting the start and playing every single snap of yesterday’s win over the Seahawks, finishing with eight total tackles.
During his opening statement, Tomlin did not mention QB Kenny Pickett. He was limited all week due to his ankle injury, though after the game, Tomlin indicated the reason for him being inactive was due to a lack of reps more so than it was injury. We’ll update if Tomlin says anything additional later in his presser.
Pittsburgh and Baltimore kick off Saturday at 4:30 PM/EST.
