Let’s take a quick look at the latest out of Pittsburgh:
- The Steelers’ trade for tight end Nick Vannett earlier this week led to some concern over the long-term health of fellow TE Vance McDonald, who is dealing with a shoulder injury. However, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the team is not worried about McDonald’s shoulder and simply wanted to bolster the talent at the tight end position (Twitter link). McDonald is officially listed as doubtful for Pittsburgh’s Monday night matchup against the Bengals.
- After dropping five passes in the Steelers’ first two games of the season, veteran wideout Donte Moncrief was benched for last week’s loss to San Francisco. Mark Kaboly of The Athletic tweets that Moncrief, who signed a two-year, $9MM pact with Pittsburgh in March, has been officially demoted to the third-string WR unit.
- Tight end Xavier Grimble was placed on IR earlier this week, and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com says Grimble sustained a torn calf muscle (Twitter link). Grimble played through the pain in San Francisco, but the team has decided to shut him down.
- Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger underwent elbow surgery earlier this week and is expected to make a full recovery well before the 2020 regular season gets underway.
- The Steelers further bolstered their TE corps by signing Alize Mack to the taxi squad.