Steelers injury report following preseason dud could impact 53-man roster

The Pittsburgh Steelers can’t move on from their preseason finale loss to the Carolina Panthers fast enough. The 34-9 final score was even more lopsided than the score might indicate, and a large reason for that was the Panthers playing a vast majority of their starters while the Steelers rested theirs.

Nonetheless, in the game of football injuries happen, and when injuries occur it can have a ripple effect on the team. Especially when the Steelers, and all 32 NFL teams, will be tasked with trimming their rosters from 80 to 53 players by Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.

After the loss to Carolina, Mike Tomlin addressed some injuries which occurred during the game, and these injuries could impact the process of the Steelers getting their roster to the league mandated 53-players.

The most notable injury was the toe injury to Joshua Dobbs. Dobbs was an outlier on the quarterback depth chart, but a toe injury, potentially being turf toe, can be a long term injury. Especially for a mobile quarterback, and injury to a toe can be quite the issue. For those who would want Dobbs to stay within the organization in the 16-man practice squad, this might be an easier way to get him there. Not many teams are going to want to pick up an injured quarterback off waivers.

The other in-game injury was a hamstring injury to linebacker/safety Marcus Allen. Allen finds himself in the mix for the backup linebacker spots behind Devin Bush and Joe Schobert, but if the hamstring injury is of the serious variety, he could find himself on Injured Reserve to start the season.

Tomlin also added how long snapper Kameron Canaday was ill after pre-game warm ups and was unable to play in the game Friday night. This resulted in Christian Kuntz getting all of the long snapper repetitions.

There were some players, the only two named were Anthony McFarland and Zach Banner, who did not make the trip to Charlotte so they could stay in Pittsburgh and get treatment for different ailments.

Throughout the preseason the Steelers have been fortunate to avoid major injury to a key player on the roster. Now, with almost two weeks off, the Steelers will turn their attention to resting and preparing for the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 of the regular season. Stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes on the black and gold as they prepare for the games that actually matter.