If a late-night report about Jalen Ramsey’s injury is true, the truth is the Steelers aren’t in a bad position to weather it. According to Gerry Dulac, the star cornerback could miss “at least several games”, which is apparently more than one. The bye week is still good news in that regard, but it sounds like he could miss some time.
On the bright side, the bye week will allow the rest of the Steelers’ secondary to get right, even if Ramsey is ailing. In fact, they should have two cornerbacks in their next game they’ve hardly had all season, if at all. One of them you may well have forgotten even existed, let alone still collected a paycheck.
The Steelers, of course, have been without Joey Porter Jr. for most of the season. Along with Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay, he has HC Mike Tomlin extremely excited about the Steelers’ secondary potential.
Of course, the Steelers have barely had Ramsey, Slay, and Porter on the field together. All three have missed some snaps, at least, due to injury. But Porter seemed to be on the cusp of returning for yesterday’s game. Given that, it should be a safe bet that he returns following the bye week.
And although he isn’t necessarily the next Jalen Ramsey, the Steelers will also have Cory Trice Jr. back. If they want him, that is. If you recall, he is on the Reserve/Injured list, and after four games, he is eligible to return. Prior to the Steelers placing him on IR, he expressed confidence he could play in Week 1.
In addition to Ramsey, Slay and Brandin Echols at least briefly left Sunday’s game. Tomlin didn’t sound very concerned about either of them, though he didn’t sound concerned about Ramsey either. Slay returned to the game, and Tomlin said he was cleated. On Echols, he attributed his absence to cramping. I’ve never had cramps that debilitated me for two weeks, so hopefully he’ll be good for Week 6.
While playing without Jalen Ramsey would be a gut punch, the truth is the Steelers are in about as good of a position to weather it as one could expect. On the other side of the bye, they should have most of their full complement of cornerbacks available to them. If they have to play with Porter, Slay, and Echols while Ramsey heals, they can certainly make that work. And there’s even Beanie Bishop Jr. whom they can elevate from the practice squad—forgot about him, too, did ya?
