Tim Benz: Steelers should've played in Dallas without Vance McDonald
Going for a late fourth down during Sunday’s win in Dallas wasn’t the only questionable decision Mike Tomlin made on Sunday.
Deciding to take tight end Vance McDonald on the trip is also worthy of second-guessing.
Well, IF that’s who we are talking about when it comes to the mysterious Steeler who got a positive covid-19 test.
That was part of the song and dance of Mike Tomlin’s Tuesday press conference — pretending we don’t know McDonald is the player currently infected even though every media outlet under the sun has reported such.
Tomlin didn’t deny that it was McDonald on Tuesday. He wouldn’t confirm it either.
Strangely, though, we can openly talk about who is in the covid-19 protocol because of potential exposure to “that player.” And one of those guys is quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Explain that one for me.
Actually, don’t bother. Dealing with nonsensical contradictions surrounding coronavirus rules has been an everyday part of our existence long before the National Football League opened training camps.
What I really want to figure out is why Vance McDo… umm, “Player McX” … was allowed by the team to travel to Sunday’s game in Dallas. Because Tomlin wanted to make it sound like it was a league decision.
It wasn’t. The Steelers decided to let McX suit up Sunday even though he missed practice Friday with an illness.
Apparently, McX’s tests were negative until “one that was administered Sunday morning,” according to Tomlin. And his positive status wasn’t known until “Sunday night or Monday morning.”
That’s a nearly identical circumstance to one last week surrounding Baltimore Ravens defensive back Marlon Humphrey. He was sick in advance of their game against the Steelers on Nov. 1. Like McX, he missed a practice during the week, kept testing negative for covid-19, then played anyway and tested positive on Monday.
Many in Pittsburgh were incredulous about that. But now the Steelers just did the same thing to the Cowboys. And, to themselves.
Because, even worse than the Ravens, McX traveled with the team on a plane and stayed around them in a hotel. At least in Humphrey’s case, the Ravens were simply playing at home against the Steelers.
“Those aren’t decisions that are made by us,” Tomlin said. “It’s cut and dry. It’s all in the procedural policy of covid established by the NFL. As long as (McDonald) is negative and not showing signs of covid, he’s able to travel, and he was. And we did.”
No. The decision to have McX dress wasn’t an NFL call. It was a Steelers decision. All the NFL did was set the guidelines for when players can and can’t play. The Steelers are free to dress and fly whomever they want.
So why run the risk of traveling a player who has been ill even though he has tested negative? Tomlin’s club was just recently a party to that when the Humphrey situation happened.
“We don’t overanalyze it that way,” Tomlin continued. “We utilize all the mechanisms at our disposal to minimize the potential of interaction.”
Sorry. That’s not “overanalysis.” It’s common sense. Don’t put the sick guy near the star quarterback. Not to mention starting inside linebacker Vince Williams.
Forget exposing all the Dallas players for a minute, what about Tomlin’s own guys? Is McX so important to the Steelers’ cause that they would’ve lost to a team that was 2-6? And if that’s the case, he should’ve played more than 24 snaps in what proved to be a tight game.
At least the Ravens can rebut that point by saying the risk-reward was worth it (for them) because Humphrey is a Pro Bowler and the Steelers are their main competition in the division.
Exposing your star QB to a potentially infected player for 29% of the team’s snaps versus a bad NFC team is silly.
Frankly, I’d fly Roethlisberger in a private jet to every game to avoid exposure. And I’d give him his own locker room. Art Rooney II should give up his office on the Southside if necessary.
This seems like a bad time to abandon the “abundance of caution” credo the Steelers have been employing when it comes to avoidance of the virus.
To say nothing of minimizing the spread to opponents and the rest of the league. The Steelers want to be Super Bowl champs. Not “Super Spreaders.”
Since training camp, NFL teams, fans and media have been of the mind that the league office could test the virus to obscurity. I’ve always viewed that hope as naive. Humphrey, McX and Stephon Gilmore in New England Steelers fans better hope the decision to let McX play on Sunday didn’t burst the bubble of the team’s Super Bowl hopes by infecting the quarterback.
And when it comes to negative-but-symptomatic players, coaches such as Tomlin better start embracing the concept of caution and common sense. And stop cloaking themselves in the convenience of the protocol dogma.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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