Steelers Place Jalen Ramsey on PUP List After Minicamp Knee Injury, Return Expected by Week 1
The Pittsburgh Steelers got their first bad news of camp before camp even really started.
Star cornerback Jalen Ramsey was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list to open training camp after suffering a knee injury during minicamp. General manager Omar Khan confirmed the diagnosis at his opening presser Tuesday and said Ramsey is expected to miss “a couple weeks” of on-field work but should be ready for Week 1.
The good news is that Ramsey did not need surgery, which was the first question Steelers fans asked. Khan and the team’s medical staff are taking a cautious approach, which is the right thing to do with a player of his profile. Better to hold him back in July than to rush him and lose him for real in October.
“It isn’t something where we don’t anticipate him being ready for the season,” Khan said.
That is the sentence that matters. If Ramsey is on the field for the opener, this becomes a nonstory pretty quickly. If the timeline slips, it becomes one of the biggest stories of the AFC North race.
Ramsey is the difference between a Steelers defense that can lock up half the field and one that has to play more zone than it wants to. He is a legitimate shutdown corner when healthy, and the Steelers built their offseason around adding him to a secondary that already had promise. Losing him for any extended stretch would change what defensive coordinator Teryl Austin can call.
The bigger question is what the injury does to Pittsburgh’s usage plan. Ramsey has traveled with number one wide receivers throughout his career, and the Steelers will want to have him in top condition for that role. Missing two weeks of camp is not a career-ender, but it is a chunk of the ramp-up window that helps veterans get their footing before the season. He is going to be behind on chemistry with the rest of the secondary, and it may take a few games for him to fully sync up.
The other question is depth. If Ramsey misses time at any point during the season, Pittsburgh’s fallback plan on the outside is going to be tested. Getting one of the young corners on the roster meaningful preseason snaps is now mission critical.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has always been at his best when the injury news is worst. This is exactly the kind of thing that will not shake him publicly. Expect him to say the right things all week about next-man-up and getting Ramsey healthy for the games that matter.
The AFC North is going to be one of the most competitive divisions in football again. The Steelers cannot afford to open the season without their most important defensive player. Right now the medical timeline says they will not have to.
All eyes are on the day Jalen Ramsey gets back on the practice field. Until then, the Steelers wait.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
