The Pittsburgh Steelers returned to practice at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., today after their preseason opener on Friday night. The team was down rookie first-round pick Troy Fautanu as well as DL Keeanu Benton. Benton suffered an eye injury in Friday’s loss to the Houston Texans while Fautanu suffered a minor MCL sprain and is expected to miss two weeks, per Gerry Dulac.
Mike Tomlin confirmed that it’s a knee sprain for Fautanu and that he will miss at least this week, per Joe Rutter of TribLive.
“He’s got a knee sprain, he’ll be out this week, and I’ll kind of just leave it that. We’re really optimistic about a quick return from him,” Tomlin said via Steelers.com.
Tomlin also noted that WR Tarik Black couldn’t finish practice due to a hamstring injury while CB Kalon Barnes suffered a quad injury and also didn’t finish practice.
WR Roman Wilson did not practice but he was around wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni at the start of practice.
CB Donte Jackson also didn’t practice with an undisclosed injury, nor did DL/OLB DeMarvin Leal. OLB Alex Highsmith, who suffered a groin injury in practice last week, also remained out of practice today.
As far as Jackson, Tomlin said the Steelers “minimized” some of their top corners to get a look at some of the other guys in the cornerback room, namely Darius Rush and Cory Trice Jr. That could be a reason for Jackson not practicing today.
While RB Cordarrelle Patterson and DL Dean Lowry were activated off the non-football injury and Active/PUP lists, respectively, neither worked in team periods today with both doing conditioning off to the side. NT Breiden Fehoko was placed on IR yesterday, which will end his season, and he obviously did not practice today. LB Cole Holcomb remains on Active/PUP.
It was a pad-less practice for the Steelers coming off a game, and the team has just two training camp practices remaining. Luckily, none of the injuries right now seem too serious, although Fautanu being out two weeks drastically reduces his chances of starting to open the season. That means we’ll likely see Dan Moore Jr. at left tackle and Broderick Jones at right tackle to open the year.
