The good news from the Steelers 26-24 preseason victory over the Colts is that the Black and Gold escaped with no new injuries.
The bad news is that Pittsburgh lost another player for an extended period of time before the game. Reserve linebacker Stevenson Sylvester injured his MCL in the final play of the final Steelers training camp practice at St. Vincent’s in Latrobe.
Sylvester’s injury is expected to keep him out 3-4 weeks, which to these ears sounds like a conservative estimate given the nature of ligament injuries.
Sylvester’s snaps will be taken up by Brandon Johnson, a veteran journeyman linebacker the Steelers signed in June mainly as an insurance policy.
The Steelers are ailing at linebacker, with James Harrison’s knee surgery putting his status for the season opener in doubt and Jason Worilds also out on the PUP list, with no timetable set for his return.
After parting ways with James Farrior, Kevin Colbert all but ruled out the possibility of bringing Farrior back should disaster strike. The words he used with Ed Bouchette were akin to “you never want to say ‘never’ but….”
You have to wonder how much further depleted the Steelers linebacking corps can become before Colbert begins thinking its “never say never time.”
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