The Pittsburgh Steelers lost an important player on either side of the ball in Week 4 against the Minnesota Vikings. Jalen Ramsey exited the game with a hamstring injury and Calvin Austin III left the game with what appeared to be a shoulder issue. The bye week gave each extra time to heal, but it’s unclear how many games they will miss.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac gave updates on both players Monday.
“Jalen Ramsey, basically, is gonna be Joey Porter [Jr.]’s injury. A pretty good hamstring tear,” Dulac said via 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann. “And whenever you have that injury [to] the hamstring, it’s so tenuous. It’s so easy to aggravate it. They just wanna be sure that doesn’t happen. And that’s why they’re taking their time with Joey Porter. And it’s gonna be the same thing with Jalen Ramsey.”
Ramsey attempted to return to the game after injuring his hamstring but was quickly pulled from the game again. Remembering back to when Porter was injured, Mike Tomlin initially described it as some hamstring tightness and more of a precautionary move to pull him from the game in Week 1. Fast forward to Week 5, and Porter is just starting to look ready to return to game action after the bye.
Going off Dulac’s timeline, that would mean Ramsey potentially missing three games with the bye week helping him just as it did Porter.
Austin’s injury sounds slightly less worrisome.
“Calvin Austin’s gonna miss, what I was told at least after the injury, was that he’s gonna miss a couple games,” Dulac said. “I don’t think it’s ever been officially diagnosed, but it has to be some kind of separation or dislocation. A couple of games is what I was told.”
The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo reported that Austin’s X-rays came back negative, which is a good sign. He did leave the stadium with a sling in an ambulance to get evaluated at a Dublin hospital, so it’s not like it was a simple stinger, either. Fellow WR Ben Skowronek told reporters last week that he’s heard Austin “won’t be out too long.”
Dulac originally reported the evening of the Vikings game that Ramsey and Austin would each miss “at least several games,” so this report is definitively more optimistic. The Steelers didn’t place Porter on IR, so maybe these injuries won’t require any IR moves this time either.
For what it’s worth, neither player was practicing with the team on Monday, the Steelers’ first day back after the bye week. I wouldn’t anticipate Ramsey practicing for a couple weeks at least, but it wouldn’t be that surprising to see Austin working in a limited capacity later this week.
