The Pittsburgh Steelers held their penultimate training camp practice today at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., and the grind of training camp has shown itself with multiple players not practicing due to different injuries.
WR Roman Wilson worked on the JUGS machine before practice as he continues to work his way back from an ankle sprain suffered on the first day of pads two weeks ago.
OT Troy Fautanu didn’t practice as he is dealing with a knee sprain, while WR Tarik Black (hamstring) also missed practice. OLB Alex Highsmith missed practice again with a groin injury he suffered last week. DT Keeanu Benton also missed practice with an eye injury suffered in the team’s preseason opener Friday, while CB Donte Jackson missed practice for the second day in a row with an undisclosed injury. Highsmith did some jogging and work off to the side, so his return doesn’t feel too far off.
CB Kalon Barnes left practice with a quad injury yesterday and did not practice today. S DeShon Elliott also did not practice today, nor did DE/OLB DeMarvin Leal, who also missed practice yesterday with an undisclosed injury.
Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweeted that Mike Tomlin said that Jackson and Elliott are dealing with minor injuries and were held out of practice due to that.
Tomlin didn’t speak to the nature of the injuries, but called them “training camp-like bumps and bruises.”
We’ve got guys with a myriad of training camp-like bumps and bruises. Some guys were given a day off. There’s not really anything to speak of. ‘D. Elliott’ [DeShon Elliott], for example. ‘D. Jackson’ [Donte Jackson] is an example of that, and some others. But you guys know, we focus less on those that we’re minimizing and those that we’re not working, when we view it more as an opportunity for some ascending guys to get not only more reps, but more competitive reps against experienced competition,” Tomlin said after practice via transcript provided by the team.
LB Payton Wilson went down hard during competition period but returned to the field after being checked out by trainers for what appeared to be a hip injury. Wilson returned quickly, though, so there shouldn’t be any concerns about his health.
There doesn’t seem to be any long-term worry with any of these injuries. Fautanu has already been ruled out this week, and it’s good to see Wilson working more as he tries to get back on the field. For the most part, these seem to be “normal bumps and bruises associated with play,” as Mike Tomlin would say, but we’ll get more on the injury front from Tomlin when he holds his press conference before the team’s second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.
