The Steelers suffered a multitude injury in the 16-16 tie with the Detroit Lions. However, the biggest of which is undoubtedly T.J. Watt. Watt left the game after a knee-to-knee collision with teammate Joe Schobert on his only sack on the game. The Steelers originally labeled it as a hip injury, but it was later amended to be being both a hip and a knee injury.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, it appears that Watt escaped a season-ending injury, but that he is week-to-week and should miss a few weeks.
From @GMFB: After discussing the knee injury for #Browns QB Baker Mayfield, we delved into #Steelers star pass-rusher TJ Watt, who is week-to-week with hip and knee ailments. He’ll have more tests today, but the sack master is expected to miss some time. pic.twitter.com/nzc1akxU9o
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 15, 2021
“He is going to have an MRI today on all of his injuries,” Rapoport said. “From what I understand, he is considered week-to-week. That means he is expected to miss some time. We’ll see if he has to miss multiple weeks or if the Steelers put him on injured reserve to return. But it doesn’t seem season-ending.”
Losing Watt for any amount of time would be a crushing blow to the Steelers. If he is placed on injured reserve, Watt would miss a minimum of three weeks before he would have to get back up to full pace and practice. That means the earliest he could return would be Thursday Night Football against the Vikings on Dec. 9 if that occurs.
In the mean time, Taco Charlton and Derrek Tuszka figure to get a lot more reps, with Charlton likely filling in and starting. It would be no surprise to see practice squad member Delontae Scott get some tread in that case as well.