Heyward Out With Ankle Injury

[RobinCole]

Players are usually putting on an optimistic face about their own injuries. They're usually wrong. I doubt he'll be ready by Week One. Certainly not near 100%.

[Oviedo]

Heyward said in the NFL network article that it was minor and he'd be back week one

I'm betting week #3

[Shawn]

High ankle sprains are tricky. 1 week-season ending are the possibilities. We won't really know much until they get an MRI.

[Starlifter]

whenever I hear high ankle sprain - I immediately think, Kendrell Bell.

Uggghhhh.

[Shoe]

Players are usually putting on an optimistic face about their own injuries. They're usually wrong. I doubt he'll be ready by Week One. Certainly not near 100%.

Yeah, and Cam is a guy who likes talking tough and being tough. I agree that it isn't Week 1, and I hope he doesn't push too much to get back by then (potentially hampering him the rest of the year). Matthews can handle it until he comes back.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

High ankle sprain seems to have the same results as concussions. He could be back next week and you won't even know he was ever hurt, or it could be something that either keeps him out or lingers all season long.

[RuthlessBurgher]

High ankle sprain seems to have the same results as concussions. He could be back next week and you won't even know he was ever hurt, or it could be something that either keeps him out or lingers all season long.

Don't mention an ankle injury and a concussion in the same sentence like that...we don't want Cam Heyward to have whatever it is that's wrong with Ladarius Green.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Cam Heyward: Illegal chop blocks are still happening
Posted by Darin Gantt on August 29, 2016, 5:43 AM EDT

Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward said the cut block that left him with a high ankle sprain was fine. But he saw plenty of other blocks Friday night against the Saints which he thought were supposed to be illegal now.

The league banned all chop blocks in March, eliminating the plays where a second offensive lineman goes for the legs of a player who is engaged with another blocker up high.

In particular, Heyward said rookie defensive tackle Javon Hargrave was chopped down while engaged with another Saints lineman.

“The ones where guys are holding someone else up and then another guy comes low, that’s uncalled for,” Heyward said, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I thought we were trying to get that out of our league. There were some instances, like one with Hargrave where he was held up and this guy still went down. Those are the ones where I’m like ‘Didn’t you just say this was a big point of emphasis?’

“There has to be changes and there has to be accountability on that level.”

Any time a rule changes, there’s going to be a period of adjustment, and it’s unrealistic to think officials are going to see them all. But Heyward’s comments will also bring attention to the rule, which will add emphasis to the point of emphasis.

As to his own injury, Heyward insisted he’d be ready for the regular-season opener on Sept. 12, as he said team doctors told him his high ankle sprain was on the mild end of the scale.

[URL]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/08/29/cam-heyward-illegal-chop-blocks-are-still-happening/[/URL]

[RuthlessBurgher]

On The Steelers: Ricardo Mathews, Ryan Harris could start season opener
September 1, 2016 12:00 AM
By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

While the Steelers’ top free agent this year languishes until November or beyond, two others might have to come to the rescue from the get-go.

Offensive tackle Ryan Harris and defensive end Ricardo Mathews also joined the Steelers as veteran free agents this year. Unlike tight end Ladarius Green, they arrived healthy, remained so and now must step up after two key injuries.

Defensive end Cam Heyward and offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert, two Pro Bowl-caliber players, left the game Friday night in New Orleans with injuries. Both say they will be ready to go when the Steelers open the season Sept. 12 at the Washington Redskins. Their injuries might say something else.

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Harris will start at offensive right tackle tonight for Gilbert and Mathews at defensive right end for Heyward when the Steelers play their final preseason game at 7:30 at the Carolina Panthers. They also might start the regular season at those spots.

Both have been around the NFL block and are ready to assume the position.

Harris, entering his ninth year, started 19 games for Denver last season, including the Broncos’ Super Bowl win. He also has started for the Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans and earlier with the Broncos in his first tour with them. He is the Steelers’ top backup at tackle and might be pressed into service immediately.

“You don’t want to drop off,” Harris, 31, said of filling Gilbert’s job as he recovers from a left elbow injury. “You need to win games, you need to win a lot of games for the goals we have here. Home-field advantage, I know from experience last year, makes a huge difference and every game counts. The more you win, the better you are.”

Like Green, only without the fanfare or big contract, Mathews signed with the Steelers after playing in San Diego the past two seasons. He started seven games in 2015, entering on third downs when he did not. He spent his first four years with the Indianapolis Colts.

The Steelers signed him to compete as a backup and possibly provide relief for starters Heyward and Stephon Tuitt. That role will change if Heyward’s high right ankle sprain does not heal quickly enough.

“My role is to step up and fill that space,” Mathews declared. “Fill a role, man, win a seventh championship. That’s our main goal. That’s it. Fill my role, fill my position and winning a championship, those are the main goals.”

He has shown to be an active, athletic end at 6 feet 3, 300 pounds in the preseason, but admits he did not reach his goals with the Chargers.

“I didn’t produce enough. I was in on all pass downs and, if you’re not sacking the quarterback, there are very little stats right there on third downs.” One sack last year, 1.5 in 2014, four in his six-year career.

The Steelers ask more of their defensive ends than sacks, even though Heyward and Tuitt ranked 1-2 for them in 2015.

“We also have to hold our integrity in our lanes. That’s the bigger picture, trying to have the right pass rush lanes so we can keep the quarterback under duress.”

Harris’ job, as it was in Denver blocking for Peyton Manning, is to prevent duress from reaching his new quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. Harris brings that no-huddle experience with him.

“I’m fairly used to that after last year. I think it’s an effective tool when you can use it, when you can do it and execute it, it’s a lot of fun. For me, it’s fun, I love that part of the game, I love playing fast and attacking a defense, and going no-huddle does that, along with establishing an entire lengthy drive. You can do it a variety of ways, but it’s definitely good to have that pitch when you’re on the mound.”

The difference between the way Manning ran the no-huddle and how Roethlisberger does it?

“He doesn’t say ‘Omaha!’ That’s about the only difference.”


Last chance for some

Tonight is a final opportunity for players such as Donald Washington to either make the Steelers roster or impress some other team that they are worthy of a shot.

Washington plays cornerback on a team that has little depth at the position. He has real playing experience in the NFL and CFL back to when the Kansas City Chiefs drafted him in the fourth round in 2009. It is something that sets him apart from every other cornerback competing behind starters William Gay and Ross Cockrell.

“It’s a huge game for me, man, a very big game,” Washington, 30, said. “It’s an opportunity for me to put a good product on tape.

“That’s the good thing about having another opportunity in the preseason. When it’s not etched in stone, just throw my name in the mix, you know what I’m saying? Give myself some consideration.”

His experiences include more than football.

“Not only my experience in the league but experiences I have had to deal with in life. It’s given me a different perspective on things. I learned a lot from my lessons.”

Among them was a Le’Veon Bell-like experience in July 2012 of marijuana possession and subsequent DUI. The NFL suspended him for three games for violating its personal-conduct policy, and he wound up out of football before the Toronto Argonauts and then Hamilton Tiger-Cats employed him the past two years.

The Steelers invited him for a tryout at their May rookie camp and signed him.

At 30, this could be the final chance for Washington to get back in the NFL, as it is for many trying to get into it for the first time.

“The whole thing through this whole process is we all just want to give ourselves the best opportunity,’’ Washington said. “There are nine guys, and everyone cannot make it. If we put the best product on the field, we can live with that.”