Mike Tomlin likes to say the Pittsburgh Steelers will “leave the light on” for injured players in regards to their availability for an upcoming game. It sounds as if the switch has all but officially been flipped to dark for Roosevelt Nix.
The lone fullback on the Steelers’ roster, Nix’s knee injury is likely to cause him to miss a third consecutive game Monday when the Steelers host the Cincinnati Bengals. The problem for the Steelers, of course, is there is literally no one to replace him.
“Not at a varsity level,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. “Not at a level that merits some of the situations that you call on a fullback in — short yardage and goal-line and others. But we have some other ways at our disposal to level the playing field and create opportunities for ourselves there.”
At one point in the second half during this past Sunday’s loss at the San Francisco 49ers, Tomlin said, the Steelers had only rookie Zach Gentry available among their entire tight ends and fullbacks corps.
Tomlin:
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) September 25, 2019
Rosie Nix (knee) still OUT this week
But these guys are questionable:
Anthony Chickillo
Vance McDonald
Xavier Grimble
Vince Williams
.
Haden will be limited in practice but probable for Sunday
By late Wednesday afternoon, tight end Xavier Grimble was placed on injured reserve. But Tomlin put another tight end, Vance McDonald (shoulder), among a group along with inside linebacker Vince Williams (hamstring) and outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo (foot) that he referred to as “more of the questionable category.
“Their availability (against the Bengals) will be dictated by practice availability and quality of work in those practices.”
Chickillo and Williams each left the Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks with their respective injuries. Neither practiced last week.
Tomlin noted that veteran cornerback Joe Haden likely will again be limited in his practice week because of his shoulder injury. That’s been the case each of the past two weeks, and Haden handled a full workload during each game that followed those practice weeks.
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