It was as inevitable as a Mike Tomlin cliché and today it reared its’ ugly head. The injury bug finally hit the Pittsburgh Steelers as it has so many other teams in the National Football League.
The most serious injury appears to be to guard Nik Embernate who suffered a very bad knee injury. Chris from Bleacher Report was actually taking pictures of the offensive line at the time of the injury and joined me tonight on The Blitz podcast. Chris said it was very easy to see this was not a minor injury and that Embernate was in extreme pain.
The free agent rookie from San Diego State was making a nice impression on everyone and had moved up to the number two guard spot. For an offensive line that already has tremendously limited depth, this is potentially a very big blow. Projected starting cornerback Cortez Allen missed his fourth straight day of practice.
He was again joined on the sidelines by fellow cornerbacks Demarcus Van Dyke and rookie Terry Hawthorne. To help with the shortage of corners, the team signed Buddy Jackson who had most recently been with Kansas City.
A day after I questioned why LaMarr Woodley did not do more conditioning to specifically target areas that have plagued him in past years, he sat out most of today’s workout with is being called ‘calf discomfort.’ After complaining about not rushing the QB enough last season, Woodley better heal quickly.
Woodley’s potential counterpart at outside linebacker, Jason Worilds had a toe dinged up but according to Mike Tomlin it’s a non-issue.
Injuries are a part of football. They are in fact part of sports and life in general. There is nothing the NFL can do change the fact that guys will go down during camp with injuries. It happens people and this is why it’s a team game. Next man up.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 4pm ET talking Steelers.
