The Pittsburgh Steelers made a bit of a surprising roster move on Wednesday as veteran ILB Tyler Matakevich was signed to the offseason roster exactly one week before the team is scheduled to report to training camp in Latrobe, PA. The timing of Matakevich’s signing now leaves one to question if it might be related to the overall health of ILB Cole Holcomb, who missed the second half of the 2023 season with a serious knee injury.
While we won’t likely know for sure until next Wednesday or Thursday, there’s now a very decent chance that Holcomb needs to start training camp on the Active/PUP list and, thus, not be ready to practice with his teammates.
Holcomb sustained a serious knee injury in the Week 9 game against the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 9. Not too long after that game, Holcomb had season-ending knee surgery. He’s roughly eight months removed from that surgery at this point.
At the conclusion of the Steelers mandatory minicamp practices several weeks ago, head coach Mike Tomlin was asked if he thought Holcomb might be ready to practice come the start of training camp.
“I’m sure he is, man,” Tomlin said. “I don’t have a lot of details about the specifics of it. But at every checkpoint, I think the experts are comfortable with his progress, and I know he’s working extremely hard.”
A little more than a month ago, Steelers GM Omar Khan was asked about Holcomb’s status during an interview on 93.7 the Fan. As part of Khan’s response, he said that the belief at the time was that Holcomb was ahead of schedule and that the plan was for him to see the doctors again sometime in July to gauge his rehab progress. While Khan indicated that the hope was that Holcomb would be ready for the start of training camp, he did not know for sure if he would be.
Cole Holcomb also talked about his rehab in late May.
“I’ve dealt with injuries before,” Holcomb told the Post-Gazette during OTAs. “I’m not at all worried or anything like that. I know I’ll come back, and I’ll play football.”
So, now we sit and wait until the Steelers arrive for training camp next week. Should Holcomb be unable to practice at the start of training camp, the team will likely place him on the Active/PUP list. If that is the move, Holcomb won’t be able to practice until he is activated from that list. Once he does practice, Holcomb will no longer be eligible to return to any PUP list, either Active or Reserve.
Should Cole Holcomb be placed on the Active/PUP list at the start of training camp and remain on it throughout the preseason, he would be eligible to start the 2024 regular season on the Reserve/PUP list. Such a move, however, would require Holcomb to miss at least the first four games of the 2024 regular season.
Last season, Cole Holcomb, who signed a three-year, $18 million unrestricted free agent contract with the Steelers last March, registered 54 total tackles, four for loss, two passes defensed, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery in the 447 defensive snaps that played. He also logged 31 snaps on special teams before suffering his season-ending knee injury. He is scheduled to earn $6 million in 2024.
During the early part of the offseason, the Steelers added a few inside linebackers to their team. One was veteran ILB Patrick Queen, formerly of the Baltimore Ravens, and he’s now expected to be the every-down starter. The other was rookie ILB Payton Wilson via a third-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Steelers also still have veteran ILB Elandon Roberts under contract, as well as former seventh-round draft pick Mark Robinson. Also under contract ahead of training camp getting underway are first-year player ILB Tyler Murray and rookie ILB Jacoby Windmon, one of the team’s five undrafted free agents signed this year.
As you can see, the addition of Tyler Matakevich on Wednesday now makes that inside linebacker room very full, and thus, that’s reason to wonder if Holcomb might not be ready for the start of training camp next week.
