{"id":644612,"date":"2026-01-01T03:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/644612\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T03:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:33:18","slug":"t-j-watt-four-other-steelers-on-track-to-play-vs-ravens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/644612\/","title":{"rendered":"T.J. Watt, Four Other Steelers on Track to Play vs. Ravens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers Injury Updates<\/a>\u2022Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt at practice on Oct. 23, 2025. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

PITTSBURGH \u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed<\/a> during his Tuesday press conference that he\u2019s optimistic that wide receiver Calvin Austin III (hamstring), cornerback Brandin Echols (groin), cornerback James Pierre (calf) and left guard Isaac Seumalo (triceps) will return for Sunday night\u2019s winner-take-all Week 18 game against the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n

In addition to those four players, Tomlin also likes All-Pro outside linebacker T.J. Watt\u2019s chances of returning <\/a>on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Austin, Echols, Pierre, Seumalo and Watt were all limited participants at Wednesday\u2019s practice. That\u2019s certainly an encouraging sign at the early portion of the week.<\/p>\n

Watt has missed the last three games after suffering a partially collapsed lung on Dec. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more optimistic this week than I\u2019ve been in previous weeks,\u201d Tomlin said on Tuesday about Watt\u2019s status for Sunday night. <\/p>\n

Watt\u2019s injury reportedly followed him undergoing a dry needling procedure at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex after a workout on a players\u2019 off day. He was quickly hospitalized and had a procedure to correct the injury.<\/p>\n

Tomlin said that full practice participation in practice this week for Watt \u201cwould be more comforting,\u201d but didn\u2019t call it a necessity. Tomlin also said that he would consider playing him, even if he could only have a limited role.<\/p>\n

Tomlin added that they\u2019re treating Watt\u2019s condition differently than an injury situation, as it\u2019s a medical circumstance. Watt was a limited participant in all three practices last week.<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghBaltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry breaks tackles from Pittsburgh Steelers T.J. Watt, Cole Holcomb and Jabril Peppers.<\/p>\n

Seumalo suffered the triceps injury in the team\u2019s Week 15 win over the Miami Dolphins. Seumalo has missed the last two games due to the injury. He was a limited participant in all three practices last week.<\/p>\n

Seumalo dealt with a pectoral ailment earlier in the season. Including against Miami, Seumalo has played in 13 games this season, starting all of them. He spent the first seven years of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles, who drafted him in the third round in 2016. He started over 60 games during that stretch with the Eagles.<\/p>\n

Spencer Anderson made his second consecutive start at left guard on Sunday against Cleveland, with Andrus Peat filling in when Anderson was used as the tight end in the team\u2019s jumbo package.<\/p>\n

Tight end Darnell Washington, who underwent surgery for his broken arm, was placed on injured reserve<\/a> with a broken left wrist. Anderson is expected to replace Washington at tight end in the jumbo package, so Seumalo returning would make things easier.<\/p>\n

Austin and Echols were both injured in the team\u2019s Week 16 win over the Detroit Lions. Neither returned to action after their injuries. Austin and Echols both did not practice last week and were out for Sunday\u2019s game against the Browns.<\/p>\n

The Steelers certainly need Austin back, as the wide receiver corps struggled mightily against Cleveland without DK Metcalf, who\u2019s serving a two-game suspension after getting into an altercation with a Lions fan in Week 16.<\/p>\n

Austin feels like he\u2019s going in the right direction to play on Sunday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty good today\u2026It\u2019s pretty tricky with those soft tissue injuries and stuff. But we got a great training staff, and I\u2019m sure that we\u2019ll make a good plan to have me hopefully ready by Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pierre missed his third straight game this past Sunday with a calf injury he suffered against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 14. Pierre was limited on Wednesday and Thursday last week before taking a step back and not practicing on Friday. Asante Samuel Jr. has replaced Pierre at outside cornerback since his injury.<\/p>\n

Alan Saunders provided reporting from Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Baltimore Ravens<\/a> Calvin Austin III<\/a> Isaac Suemalo<\/a> James Pierre<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> T.J. Watt<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers Injury Updates\u2022Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt at practice on Oct. 23, 2025. — Ed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[117,8741,7,93862,5856,6,520,57,2360,426,2395,5226],"class_list":{"0":"post-644612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-calvin-austin-iii","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-isaac-suemalo","12":"tag-james-pierre","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","16":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","17":"tag-steelers","18":"tag-steelers-news","19":"tag-t-j-watt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115817742665399159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}