Mike Tomlin keeping Steelers injuries close to the vest heading into Week 1 vs. the Patriots

In his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged there were several players fighting their way back from injury but did not give any details in regards to individual players.

In a typical mid-week press conference, Tomlin would outline specific players injured in the previous game and their expectations for the week. It is purely speculation if Coach Tomlin is keeping quiet because they are coming out of the preseason or if he is taking a page out of Bill Belichick’s playbook to give as little information as possible. Regardless of the reason, no players were specifically addressed as having an injury in his opening statement of the press conference.

“We had a number of guys that were battling short-term injuries as the preseason came to a close, some of which we left in Pittsburgh as a precaution,” Tomlin explained to the media in attendance. “We’ll get some of these guys back into the fold on Wednesday and evaluate their level of participation in practice and thus their level of availability. I don’t have a lot of details about some of those guys as I stand here right now.”

Many times on a Tuesday, Mike Tomlin will acknowledge specific players and state they are currently getting treatment so he will check on their progress a a later time. This week, Tomlin gave no information even though he most likely had more he could have offered. With a bonus practice on Monday due to the final preseason game being last Thursday, Coach Tomlin had information of who was available and in what capacity in practice the day before. Although the lack of an injury update is frustrating to Steelers’ fans, it is also wise to not give their opponent any information which could aide in their game preparation until they are required to release their first injury report.

During the question and answer portion of the press conference, Coach Tomlin continued to shy away from divulging any information when he was asked specifically about Sean Davis and his availability after suffering an apparent ankle injury during the preseason.

‘I don’t know. We’ll see in terms of Sean Davis’ ability.”

While Tuesday’s press conference was of little help in bringing the Steelers’ injury situation into focus, the required injury report will be out Wednesday afternoon following practice. Make sure to check back to Behind The Steel Curtain Wednesday after 4 PM for an update on the first injury report for the Steelers Week 1 match up against the New England Patriots.