The Pittsburgh Steelers were full steam ahead for most of their preseason finale against the Detroit Lions.
The Steelers won the game 19-9 to finish the preseason undefeated, but that wouldn’t have mattered as much if Pittsburgh and Mike Tomlin didn’t get lucky on the injury front.
Colin Dunlap and Adam Crowley discussed Tomlin's personnel decisions in the preseason finale on Audacy's "Fourth Down In The Steel City" podcast.
“I don’t think that the potential positives, which are Najee Harris and T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward and whomever, whoever you want – Diontae Johnson, although I can live with him a little bit because his was early. But especially those three guys that I mentioned – the three former guys that I mentioned – I don’t think that the potential positive outweighs the negative,” Dunlap said (1:30 in player above). “If they make great plays in the preseason, and that’s the height of potential positive, is it applicable to getting ready for a season that starts in 10 days, 14 days.”
Two of the Steelers’ most-important players were injured in Sunday’s preseason finale, although Tomlin said that they are OK. Johnson appeared to suffer a shoulder injury and Watt injured his left knee after receiving a cutblock – then went back into the game.
On top of that, Harris saw his first action of the preseason and told reporters after the game that he suffered a lisfranc sprain four weeks ago. That's an injury that usually carries a four-to-six week recovery period.
“How many times have we had the conversation, the Steelers coming off a bye ‘Are they rested or are they rusty?’ And there are enough people that say rusty, and there’s been enough performances to make you think rusty, that regardless of what just happened in this preseason game, you’re then going 14 days and won’t the rust just grow back? That’s the way I see it,” Crowley said.
“The other thing is T.J. Watt just won the Defensive Player of the Year Award and he blew off all preseason. He had 22.5 sacks. Clearly the rest did him some good,” he continued. “What’s the argument for that guy to be playing, let alone after he gets cut-blocked to be put back in the game, let alone then to playinto the second quarter.”
Watt did miss some time last season with a groin injury, which caused some to think that his body wasn't warmed up for the season. There are others that believe he may be injury prone. Whatever the case may be, putting him back into a preseason game after an injury scare has a much higher risk than reward.
“I wouldn’t have played Cam Heyward in the game. I wouldn’t have played T.J. Watt in the game. I wouldn’t have played Najee Harris in the game,” Crowley said. “If they’re rusty against Cincinnati, yes it’s a divisional opponent. It sucks. You’re 0-1 and you’re 0-1 in the division if you lose. That’s a big deal. It’s not as big of a deal as losing those guys – any of those guys – for the season ‘cause if you do, you ain’t making the playoffs.”
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