During his weekly news conference Wednesday, coach Mike Tomlin seemed to take great pains to repeatedly point out he was not ruling out Vance McDonald or Xavier Grimble to play in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ upcoming Monday night game.

Four hours later, the team not only ruled Grimble out for that game, they assured he won’t play in any of the next seven, either.

Grimble was placed on injured reserve to create room on the 53-man roster for the man who will replace him on the depth chart as the No. 2 tight end, Nick Vannett.

Grimble had one catch for 3 yards this season and has 23 catches for 239 yards over four seasons and 47 NFL games in his career.

Adding more curiosity to the move is the calf injury Grimble has was not announced during Sunday’s game in which he suffered it. Grimble also did not mention any injury when he spoke eagerly Tuesday about perhaps taking on the role as the Steelers’ No. 1 tight end with McDonald’s status in question.

McDonald has a shoulder injury and did not play during the second half of Sunday’s loss at the San Francisco 49ers.

Wednesday morning, the Steelers announced the trade of a fifth-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for Vannett.

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