UPDATE: After practice, in a video from Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Twitter, Mike Tomlin stated that Jonnu Smith left practice early Tuesday due to knee soreness, noting that it seems “less significant.” That sounds like good news for Smith, who’s already missed some time in training camp. Hopefully, this means he will be available for the Steelers’ Saturday night preseason game in Jacksonville.
Our original story is below.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers’ first preseason game is Saturday night, but it’s still unclear who they’re going to have participate. They’ve got a lot of new faces, so they might want to get those players some live action. However, they might be down a few players going into that game. Training camp is in full swing, and players have been getting physical. On Tuesday, rookie QB Will Howard left practice early. So did TE Jonnu Smith.
Steelers Depot’s own Tim Rice captured a photo of Smith leaving practice with a trainer, noting that he left in a minivan.
The Steelers traded for Smith in late June, so he didn’t have much time before training camp to bond with his new teammates. Therefore, training camp is especially important for him.
However, he’s already missed some time with an injury early in camp. While that didn’t seem serious, it still cost him reps. Now, he could end up missing more time, depending on what his ailment is.
It’s important to note that Smith doesn’t seem to be dealing with anything serious. He walked on his own with the trainer before leaving practice. However, the severity of whatever he’s dealing with is uncertain.
Even though Smith is new to the Steelers, he’s familiar with their offensive system. Smith has played for Arthur Smith with two separate teams before. As a result, he’s got a feel for what the Steelers’ offensive coordinator likes to do. While that doesn’t mean that he knows everything about the Steelers’ offense, missing a short amount of time might not impact him as much as it would some other players.
Hopefully, Smith isn’t dealing with anything too serious. Even if he misses the Steelers’ first preseason game, there are still two others for which he could be completely healthy. There’s no reason to push Smith if he isn’t 100 percent.
He only missed a few days with his last injury. Perhaps that will be the case again here, or maybe he won’t even miss any time at all. The Steelers want to feature tight ends heavily in their offense, and Smith figures to be a big part of that.
