Pittsburgh Steelers DT Keeanu Benton came off the field following a first-down play late in the first quarter in the team’s preseason opener against the Houston Texans.
Benton missed practice earlier this week with an undisclosed injury, and after coming off the field, Benton dropped to his knees and appeared to be getting looked at by a trainer.
According to Joe Rutter of TribLive, Benton pulled a towel over his face and may have gotten poked in the eye.
Communication director Burt Lauten said that Benton suffered an eye injury and is out for the rest of the game.
Benton is a key piece of Pittsburgh’s defense and is expected to take a step forward in his second NFL season. Hopefully, the injury isn’t anything major and Benton will be fine and ready to go for the start of the season. Benton likely would’ve been out of the game anyway at this point, so it’s hard to tell if the injury is anything major that will cause the Wisconsin product to miss more time.
The good news is that the injury is likely unrelated to whatever caused Benton to miss practice earlier this week, so it’s not a recurring thing he’s dealing with. We’ll likely get a postgame update from Mike Tomlin, and with Pittsburgh not practicing until Sunday, Benton will have a day to recover.
