Steelers Now
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Pittsburgh Steelers escaped Saturday night’s 31-25 preseason win over the Jacksonville Jaguars relatively injury-free. In his postgame interview, Mike Tomlin mentioned that wide receiver Cam McCutcheon was dealing with a soft-issue injury but that was the only injury listed.
“We kinda got through the game virtually injury-free,” Tomlin said. “I think Cam McCutcheon got taken out with a soft-tissue injury, maybe a hamstring injury that needs to be evaluated. But other than that, we were pretty clean.”
That’s good news for the Steelers, as the main goal for every preseason game is to escape with no major injuries.
Twenty-three players were inactive for the Steelers in Saturday night’s preseason opener against the Jaguars.
Most of the absences had been expected, with Tomlin ruling out over a dozen players during his press conference on Tuesday.
Three players that were not previously announced as inactive that are not dressed for Saturday’s game are tight end DJ Thomas-Jones, center Ryan McCollum and tackle Calvin Anderson. All three have been battling injuries. McCollum has a right leg injury. Anderson has a lower-body soft-tissue injury. Thomas-Jones returned from a left calf/ankle injury last week, but was again sidelined for undisclosed reasons.
The rest of the injured Steelers, who Tomlin had previously ruled out, include quarterback Will Howard (right pinky), wide receiver Calvin Austin III (undisclosed), outside linebacker Alex Highsmith (groin), cornerback Cory Trice (hamstring) and cornerback Donte Kent (right foot/ankle).
Tomlin also decided to rest several veteran players, including quarterback Aaron Rodgers, running back Jaylen Warren, tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith, wide receiver DK Metcalf, left guard Isaac Seumalo, kicker Chris Boswell, outside linebacker T.J. Watt, outside linebacker Nick Herbig, defensive tackle Cam Heyward, inside linebacker Patrick Queen, cornerback Joey Porter Jr., cornerback Darius Slay, defensive back Jaylen Ramsey and safety DeShon Elliott.
The Steelers return to St. Vincent College on Monday. Their next preseason game is against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Saturday, Aug. 16 at Acrisure Stadium. They’ll have a joint scrimmage against Tampa Bay on Thursday at Acrisure, which is closed to the public.
Alan Saunders and Ed Thompson provided reporting from Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Steelers Escape Jaguars Game ‘Virtually Injury-Free’
