Mike Tomlin provides little new detail regarding status, health of Steelers star T.J. Watt

Saying he could not even say with certainty if his star defensive player was in the facility as he spoke Tuesday afternoon, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin provided no details about the status of outside linebacker T.J. Watt.

Watt missed Monday’s Steelers victory as he recovers from a partially collapsed lung he suffered while undergoing a “dry needling” procedure at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex last week.

“I’ve got no new news on T.J.,” Tomlin said early in his weekly news conference. “I’m sure I will a little later in the week, but I hadn’t heard any new updates regarding his availability or what that looks like as he starts to work his way back to us this week. And so, no real news there.”

The Steelers play at the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

Watt had not missed a Steelers regular-season game since 2022 before Monday’s defeat of the Miami Dolphins. Watt has not spoken publicly since suffering the ailment — and spending two nights at a local hospital — but his brother, J.J., posted on social media last week that T.J. had undergone “successful surgery” to address the issue.

Late last week, Tomlin said he was in contact with Watt and that the 31-year-old was “comfortable.”

“I don’t know if he’s been in the facility yet,” Tomlin said Tuesday from team headquarters, “because I’ve been in a dark room in the back. He might be in the facility as we speak and so I don’t have a lot of the answers to that, and I was just trying to be transparent when I said I didn’t have any new information as I stood here today.”

Asked a follow-up if he had learned anything about the “dry needling” technique of therapy or how last week’s session resulted in a hospital stay for Watt, Tomlin made it clear he would not be discussing Watt’s situation any further.

“I have no new information regarding that,” Tomlin said. “None whatsoever.”