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On Wednesday the Pittsburgh Steelers held their first practice in preparation for Sunday’s home game against the Indianapolis Colts, and five players missed the practice due to injury. It was no surprise to see tight end Eric Ebron (back) on the injury list, nor was it a shock to see safety-turned-linebacker Marcus Allen (stinger) on the list, as both players had to come out of Monday night’s 27-17 loss to the Bengals.
But three of the players who missed practice were a surprise, those being:
DE Stephon Tuitt (back)
LB Ulysees Gilbert III (ankle)
LB Olasunkanmi Adeniyi (shoulder)
Basically, it’s more bad news for a defense that is already woefully short at the linebacker position, and if Allen, Gilbert and Adeniyi aren’t able to play on Sunday, one can forget about any kind of a rotation at linebacker. In that case, T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith might need to be on the field for virtually every defensive snap, not to mention inside linebacker Vince Williams, who was activated off the Reserve/COVID-19 list today. And the team would still need to involve relatively recent acquisitions like ILB Tegray Scales and DE/OLB Cassius Marsh, the latter of whom was acquired off the Colts’ practice squad on December 9th.
Gilbert’s injury is particularly disappointing, as he recently came off the injured reserve list (on December 12th) after recovering from a back injury that landed him on IR on November 4th. He has appeared in just four games thus far this season after missing half of last year with what turned out to be a fractured vertebra.
There was some good news on the injury front, however, as both running back James Conner and rookie offensive guard Kevin Dotson were back at practice as full participants. Also, fullback Derek Watt was a full participant, in spite of the scary collision in which he was involved on Monday night.
Meanwhile, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, center Maurkice Pouncey and offensive guard David DeCastro all had the day off, as per the Wednesday usual.
Indianapolis Colts Participation/Injury Report
As for Sunday’s opposition, the Colts were without quarterback Philip Rivers on Wednesday, as Rivers has a toe injury.
The Colts also had three other players who missed practice in its entirety.
DT DeForest Buckner (ankle)
OT Anthony Castonzo (knee)
WR Marcus Johnson (quadriceps)
Meanwhile, three other players were limited participants in practice, namely C/G Quenton Nelson (back), TE Mo Alie-Cox (knee) and DE Al-Quadin Muhammed (ankle).
Steelers 2020 Hall of Honor Class
In one other bit of news from Wednesday, the Steelers announced that a live streamed video presentation will take place at halftime on Sunday, one that will highlight the organization’s 2020 Hall of Honor Class.
The stream will be available via Steelers.com, the team’s mobile app, and all of its social media channels.
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