This week’s depth chart has been released, and Jason Worilds has been listed as the starting ROLB over Jarvis Jones this week. Jones didn’t start the game in Oakland, and was pulled out after struggling to contain the edge during the loss to the Raiders. He played for a total of only 11 defensive plays.
https://twitter.com/BobLabriola/status/395196607559266304
David DeCastro was on 97.3 The Fan this morning for his weekly radio interview. When asked about his injury, DeCastro said “I’ll do my best to get back as soon as possible”. He wouldn’t get into the specific details of his injury or how long he expected to be sidelined, but it did not sound like he expected to be available to return this week.
The injury happened in the 3rd quarter when Raiders CB Tracy Porter was blocked into the back of DeCastro’s lower leg. He attempted to play through it with a very noticeable limp on the next play, but subsequently stayed out for the remainder of the game. We’ll know more about his injury in the next couple hours.
Here are the offensive and defensive play counts for the Steelers versus the Raiders. On offense, Foster (concussion), DeCastro (ankle), and Whimper (knee) all left the game early due to injuries. On defense, Jarvis Jones and Ziggy Hood saw very limited playing time, while Vince Williams saw more plays than he has yet this season.
Offensive Play Counts
[table id=27 /]
Defensive Play Counts
[table id=28 /]
The following players are inactive for the Steelers today:
QB Landry Jones, WR Markus Wheaton, CB Curtis Brown, TE Rich Gordon, LB Kion Wilson, LB Chris Carter, and NT Loni Fangupo.
For the Raiders:
SS Tyvon Branch, LB Martez Wilson, DE Ryan Robinson, C Andre Gurode, T Menelik Watson, T Tony Pashos, and WR Juron Criner.
The league handed down it’s weekly justice in the way of fines today, and Le’veon Bell was not a recipient. Stevenson Sylvester’s name was also not on that list. Bell was penalized for face masking Ravens corner back Corey Graham in the last couple minutes of the first half. Here’s a gif of that.~
Stevenson Sylvester was also not fined for his hit on Ravens kicker Justin Tucker during an onside kick in the fourth quarter. Here’s a gif of that hit.~
Like last Friday, TE Richard Gordon and WR Markus Wheaton have been ruled out for Sunday’s game. Coach Tomlin said on Tuesday that Wheaton would continue to be out, and he hasn’t practiced all week, so this isn’t a revelation by any means. Despite having participated fully on Thursday and Friday, Richard Gordon has been ruled out again this week. Gordon injured his great toe during his first practice with the team.
The only new addition to the injury report was Ramon Foster (thumb), though he participated fully. Aside from Foster- Beachum (ribs), Gilbert (quad), Keisel (ribs) and Miller (non-injury) all participated fully today.
The only player to miss practice was Markus Wheaton, who has already been ruled out due to his finger. Everyone who was limited yesterday participated fully. So…Beachum (ribs), Gilbert (quad), Gordon (toe), Keisel (ribs) and Miller (non-injury) all participated fully. Great news indeed.
Here’s a rundown of the Steelers practice participation today:
DNP: Markus Wheaton (finger)
Limited: Beachum (ribs), Gilbert (quad), Gordon (toe), Keisel (ribs) and Miller (not injury related).
Full: Jarvis Jones (concussion), Lawrence Timmons (hand), LaMarr Woodley (knee), Cameron Heyward (illness), and WR Jerricho Cotchery (abdomen).
For the Raiders:
Limited: CB Porter (shoulder) and C Wisniewski (knee).
DNP: SS Branch (ankle), and RT Pashos (hip).
The Steelers face the Oakland Raiders at O. co. Coliseum on Sunday. Kickoff is at 4:05 Est., and the game will be televised on CBS. Spero Dedes and Rich Gannon are the announcers. You can view the map below to see if your local CBS affiliate will be broadcasting the game.
H/T the506
Early Games:
Red- Dolphins @ Patriots
Green- Browns @ Chiefs
Blue- Bills @ Saints
Late Games:
Yellow – Steelers @ Raiders
Purple- Jets @ Bengals
Go Steelers!
The Steelers have restructured Ike Taylor’s contract to free up cap space. The team was getting dangerously low in terms of cap room, so a restructure was a necessary evil to free up funds for possible injury replacements. The move creates an additional $1,488,236 in cap space for 2013. According to Ian Whetstone, the Steelers dropped his base salary to the vet minimum, and rolled the rest (apx $2.976 Mil) into a signing bonus.
Before the restructure, the Steelers were only about $247,000 under the cap. Isaac Redman’s salary of $ 1.323 Mil was fully guaranteed, and signing Kion Wilson cost the team a little under $330,000. Now, the team has $1,735,390 in cap space to operate with for the remainder of the 2013 season.
Ike Taylor’s numbers for 2013 and 2014 now look like this:
Year Base Salary Bonus Cap Number Dead Money
2013 $940,000 $4,942,401 $7,965,930 $9,884,805
2014 $7,000,000 $4,942,404 $11,942,404 $4,942,404