Amid reports he’s unhappy, Melvin Ingram misses Steelers practice – but because of injury

About as far as Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin would go in acknowledging veteran Melvin Ingram III is unhappy with his role on the team is to say he has spoken with him. Tomlin also insists Ingram’s absence from Friday’s practice is not related to reports he seeks a trade.

“I’ve had some conversations with Melvin, but I will leave those between he and I,” Tomlin said after Steelers practice Friday. “The reason he didn’t work today is because of his groin.”

Reports from separate NFL Network reporters over the past week indicated Ingram is unhappy with his role as the Steelers’ No. 3 outside linebacker behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. A three-time Pro Bowl honoree, Ingram signed with the Steelers in July after playing nine seasons with the Chargers organization.

Though Ingram played roughly two-thirds of the Steelers’ defensive snaps over the first five games, he appeared in just 26% of the plays during their most recent game, an overtime win against the Seattle Seahawks on Oct. 17.

A Saturday NFL.com report included Ingram as a potential trade target by other teams. Thursday, the league’s Pittsburgh-based reporter termed the Ingram situation as him “want(ing) out of Pittsburgh after seeing a reduction in his playing time.”

Asked if trading Ingram was an option, Tomlin replied, “I’m not talking about any of that. I am talking about stuff that’s leading into Cleveland Browns this weekend.”

The Steelers play at their AFC North rivals at 1 p.m. Sunday. Typically, players who do not practice Friday are made unavailable for a Sunday game. On the league-mandated injury report released about two hours after Tomlin spoke Friday, Ingram was listed as doubtful.

“I am not going to add any color to anything other than what’s required,” Tomlin said. “Anything other than that kind of puts us at a completive disadvantage, and I don’t want to get into the details of that.”

Derek Tuszka is the only other outside linebacker on the roster to back up Watt and Highsmith, each of whom has missed a game this season because of a groin injury.

“(Tuszka) has primarily been a special teams guy,” Tomlin said, “and I don’t expect that to change this weekend.”

The Steelers have two edge rushers on their practice squad: Taco Charlton and Delontae Scott. Charlton is a former first-round pick and Scott a 2020 undrafted free agent who had 10 sacks as a senior at SMU but has not been part of an NFL active roster.

The No. 28 overall pick in 2017, Charlton has 12 starts among the 44 NFL games he’s played for three teams. The Steelers signed him to their practice squad Sept. 21.

Watt regularly talks about wanting to limit his snaps so he’s fresh. Against the Seahawks, Highsmith played every defensive snap for the first time in his two-year NFL career. Watt played 56 of the Steelers’ 65 snaps on defense.

Ingram has been deployed as a pass rusher from the middle of the defense on passing downs at times the past two weeks, a rare instance of the Steelers deploying three of their edge rushers at once. Part of his increased playing time in prior weeks was tied to injury-related absences of Watt and Highsmith.

The 32-year-old Ingram has one sack, one pass defended, six QB hits and 10 total tackles for the Steelers this season.

For his career, Ingram has 50 sacks and 114 QB hits in 119 games.

“Any time we can get a veteran in here who’s been doing it at a Pro-Bowl level, to get more knowledge from is always something that I’ll welcome with open arms,” Watt said Friday about Ingram’s addition to the team this season.

But when asked by reporters if Ingram had spoken with him about his role or perceived unhappiness, Watt declined.

“I’m not going to talk about it,” Watt said.” I don’t know any specifics.”

Only a handful of players are made available to media each week during this season operating under coronavirus protocols. Ingram has not spoken to reporters since Sept. 22. At the opening of training camp, Ingram said of signing with the Steelers, “it was a place I felt like I could call home, a place I can come in and fit in.”

Ingram’s agent, David Mulugheta, could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.

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