Pittsburgh Steelers’ rookie wide receiver Markus Wheaton will not be in uniform this week when the Steelers play the New York Jets.
He had surgery during the bye-week on his broken pinky finger and cannot be OK’ed to play until the stitches come out.
With Wheaton down, that means presumably more snaps for Jerricho Cotchery who is having a decent season despite being remembered mostly for being the ball carrier on an ill-fated end around.
My larger question is whether this gets Derek Moye back on the field for the Steelers. If you have forgotten the 6’4″ Moye, he’s the one who has one reception for one yard and it went for a touchdown against the Bengals. This was the last time we’ve seen the young man play.
At 0-4, the Steelers should give Moye at least 10-15 snaps on Sunday but I’m not sure he’ll see that many. My concern is that with Wheaton down, does Todd Haley decide to use his tight ends more? For my sanity and many others’ I hope that isn’t the case.
Since Heath Miller has returned, we’ve seen less of David Paulson and more of just Miller and David Johnson which is a good thing but not that good. I know I’m not the only one who sees this offense move the ball better with three wideouts on the field versus having eight or nine tight ends on the field as Haley likes to do.
We know that the Haley clearly has plays designed for when Moye is active so I’m hoping he gets a chance. He’s proven he has a good work ethic and he plays hard. At this point, what do the Steelers have to lose besides another game?
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 630pm ET talking Steelers and is a blogger for ESPN 970 in Pittsburgh.
3 comments
“Pittsburgh Steelers at New York Jets,MetLife Stadium,East Rutherford, NJ.Sunday,Oct 13th, 2013,1:00pm..
to answere your question, hell no. he can catch the ball. it’s not the “steelers way”. besides the “brains” that make all these decisi0ns are busy cutting all of colberts draft picks and bringing back all of his good draft picks that were taken away from them because it’s not the “steelers way” to negotiate with players ONLY at certain times of the year.now when these players are used up it’s the “steelers way” and time of the year to negotiate. Understand?
They didn’t use Wheaton, will they start thinking outside the box who knows. Why push Sanders down our throats and not give any one else a chance? I knew Cotchery was a pretty good receiver but they let him sit for 2 1/2 years. Even if they did have a good WR on the roster who would ever know. They do have a problem with giving offensives skill players chances. And please all you Sanders fans don’t say anything we need high quality tough I WILL DO WHAT EVER IT TAKES PLAYERS.