Steelers Get Good Injury News All Around

PITTSBURGH — It appears that finally, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be getting some players back from injury this week against the Arizona Cardinals.

Head coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that he expects the free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and nose tackle Montravius Adams to return to practice this week, and if all goes well, return to action against the Cardinals on Sunday.

“We’ll leave the light on for Minkah and Mont Adams this week. Both guys will be participants on some level tomorrow and then we’ll let the amount of that participation and the quality of that participation be our guide as we lean in toward the latter part of the week. But cautiously optimistic about both.”

Fitzpatrick has been out since suffering a right hamstring injury in the Steelers’ Week 8 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Steelers have been replacing him with a combination of Damontae Kazee, Keanu Neal and now Trenton Thompson since Neal’s injury.

The Steelers have played just two series of defense this season with all of their top defenders: Cam Heyward, Alex Highsmith, Fitzpatrick and T.J. Watt on the field at the same time, and Fitzpatrick’s return could lift a defense that is already fifth in the league in scoring defense and fourth in takeaways.

Adams hasn’t played since he injured his right ankle early in the team’s Week 9 win over the Tennessee Titans. He has been replaced by rookie Keeanu Benton, and with Heyward, Benton, Larry Ogunjobi and Adams all in the fold, the Steelers could present their toughest defensive line yet.

The good injury news continued to the offensive side of the ball, where wide receiver and punt returner Calvin Austin III suffered an ankle injury late against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12.

Tomlin said that Austin’s injury is progressing faster than expected and that he could return this week.

“It looks significantly better,” Tomlin said. “We’ll watch him and he might be limited some in the early portions of the week.”

The one new injury Tomlin had to report was some ankle discomfort for quarterback Kenny Pickett. He is not expected to miss Sunday’s game, but may be limited in practice this week.

STEELERS INJURY REPORT