PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt is dealing with a knee injury, leaving his status for the season opener against Buffalo uncertain.
Defensive coordinator Keith Butler did not get into specifics about the nature of the injury when asked Wednesday, but did confirm it’s one of the reasons why Tuitt did not practice with the team at all during training camp.
“His knee is bothering him, as far as I know,” Butler said. “I don’t know everything about his knee, I just know it’s slowing him down right now.”
While Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has insisted that the 28-year-old Tuitt — who is coming off a career-best 11 sacks in 2020 — is “fine,” he is helping his mother grieve the loss of his younger brother. Richard Bartlett III, 23, died after being struck in a hit-and-run accident in Georgia in June.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know how I’d handle my mom watching her son die,” Butler said. “I don’t know if I could handle that. So, I’m not sure what to tell you, other than that his knee is bothering him a little bit and he might be a little bit overweight and what he’s doing with his mother.”
Butler added he believes the Steelers will get Tuitt back, but declined to offer a guess on when that might be. Consider it one of the reasons the team kept eight defensive linemen when rosters were trimmed to 53 on Tuesday, including rookie Isaiahh Loudermilk.
“It gives our young guys the chance to develop a little bit more. Not to say that our young guys aren’t going to play,” Butler said. “We always rotate people early in the season, and the reason we do that is because it’s very hard to get in what I call ‘hitting shape’ and cardiovascular shape unless you do it. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got enough people.”
While Butler will have plenty of guys to mix-and-match along the line, the same can’t be said for the secondary. The Steelers only kept four true cornerbacks — Joe Haden, Cam Sutton, Justin Layne and James Pierre — and have been unable to find a full-time slot corner. It likely means Sutton — who was re-signed in the offseason with the idea he would take over the outside spot created when the team cut Steve Nelson — will have to bounce back inside in nickel and dime packages.
Sutton says he’s ready to handle the increased responsibilities. Butler doesn’t sound convinced four cornerbacks will be enough.
“We think we’re okay right now to play them in different positions,” he said. “If somebody becomes available out there in Never Never Land, we’ll see what happens.”
Pittsburgh did add cornerbacks Mark Gilbert and Donovan Stiner to the practice squad on Wednesday. They also took a flier on former Raiders first-round pick Karl Joseph.
Joseph, a safety, was the 14th overall pick in the 2016 draft. He spent the first four seasons of his career with the Raiders before signing with Cleveland for the 2020 season. Joseph had 67 tackles and one interception in 14 games for the Browns.
NOTES: The Steelers also signed WRs Steve Sims, Rico Bussey and Cody White, RBs Trey Edmunds and Jaylen Samuels, OLs Chaz Green, John Leglue and Malcolm Pridgeon, TE Kevin Rader, LBs Derrek Tuszka and Christian Miller and DL Daniel Archibong to the practice squad.
More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
