Steelers Activate Ben Roethlisberger, Vince Williams, Others from COVID-Reserve List

The Steelers have officially activated Ben Roethlisberger, Jerald Hawkins, Vince Williams, and Jaylon Samuels from the COVID-Reserve list, the team announced Saturday morning.

These players, who are now eligible to play on Sunday against Cincinnati, were all placed on the list and forced to quarantine themselves away from the rest of the team following Vance McDonald’s positive test. Even though they did not test positive themselves, contact tracing determined these players needed to quarantine.

There is still no word on when Vance McDonald will be able to return to the team.

Head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media about how this week was different from others in terms of preparation and how they were handling having several key players unable to physical be with the team. Tomlin also defended his decision to play McDonald just a couple days after he missed practice with what was listed as a “sickness” on the injury report.