As T.J. Watt told the media following the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 27-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, he just rolled his ankle and X-rays were negative. That is probably a best-case scenario given how close the calendar is to the playoffs but still not ideal to have the team’s best player in doubt for important upcoming games.
According to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, Watt should be good for the playoffs and possibly some of the remaining regular-season schedule, too.
“He has believed to have suffered a low-ankle sprain, much less significant, much less severe [than Patrick Mahomes],” Rapoport said Monday via Good Morning Football. “He has the Ravens on Saturday, so a little bit of a shorter week, then also plays on Christmas. So we’ll see if T.J. Watt is able to be out there. I would say for both of these guys’ injuries, not long term. So probably good for the playoffs at least.”
Since he was lumping Mahomes and Watt into the same few sentences, his “probably good” for the playoffs is angled more at Mahomes. Watt should be more than okay a few weeks from now in the first round of the playoffs. He has an outside chance of playing this Saturday against the Ravens. If it was a playoff game, I am pretty positive he would be playing through the injury.
The Steelers have been pretty conservative with their approach to injuries this season, so we can probably expect something similar here with at least the Ravens game missed. The issue is, if he misses against the Ravens, then it’ll be tough to play four days later against the Kansas City Chiefs.
It wouldn’t be shocking if he sat out the next two games because of the tight schedule and then returned against the Cincinnati Bengals in the regular-season finale. Alex Highsmith recently had a low-ankle injury and missed three games, but his looked more severe from the start.
Mike Tomlin should offer some kind of update on Watt during his weekly press conference today on this condensed week ahead of a critical Ravens game that could end up deciding the AFC North crown. If the Steelers win, they clinch the division.
As for Patrick Mahomes, whom the Steelers play just nine days from now on Christmas, it sounds like he is more in doubt for the upcoming few games but should have a good chance at returning for the playoffs.
