Le'Veon Bell's clean bill of health is enough for Steelers coach Mike Tomlin

After aggravating his knee in Thursday's practice, Bell returned to the field Friday to practice with the team. After missing the first preseason game due to a knee injury, there was much cause for speculation after it was apparent he may have another knee problem after Thursday's practice.

But Bell assures onlookers that what happened Thursday was not serious, that there was no ligament tear and that the injury was not as bad as people were making it out to be. You can bet the rookie wants to make sure he has every opportunity to earn the starting spot on the roster at halfback and develop into the feature back of the Pittsburgh offense that so many people want him to become. So with that in mind, would it be reasonable to expect him to maybe play down anything that may risk that opportunity?

Not when you have Mike Tomlin confirming LeVeon Bell's status as ready to go. Tomlin's clean bill of health rule this camp is that no matter the player's injury they recovered from, as soon as they are cleared to play, they are expected to perform. So now that LeVeon Bell is ready to go for action, Tomlin expects him to be preparing for Monday night just "like all the other healthy men."

It's a good sign that Bell is not too banged up to play Monday (so far). Had he been forced to miss the Redskins game there probably would have been a large amount of speculation as to how injury prone he was. It is well documented that Tomlin has ratcheted camp up a notch in the hitting department, but that doesn't mean he's not worried about injuries. This is the same coach that is requiring all offensive lineman to wear knee braces, and has had to coach a team that has needed patchwork alignment on the offensive line, ever since he came to Pittsburgh.

By appearances this does not look like Bell is being rushed into the lineup so that people can see how good he is. The last thing Steeler fans need to hear now is that another prospective starter went out for injury.

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