No football player is fully healthy at the end of an 18-week season, and the same goes on a week-to-week basis. Bumps and bruises associated with play, as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin loves to call it.
So when asked about the health of his running back Jaylen Warren in a press conference on Tuesday, Tomlin was frank: “That’s a slippery slope in the football world. He’s healthy enough, certainly.”
Aside from a first down in the first quarter, Warren was a virtual non-factor in the Steelers Week 1 win, finishing with 20 all-purpose yards on 13 snaps. Cordarrelle Patterson had four rushing attempts, while Warren had just two for seven yards.
Warren has been battling a hamstring injury since game two of the preseason, and there was doubt that he would even play in Week 1. It’s a good sign that he did, but the season is a marathon. As long as Najee Harris is producing, there’s no need to rush Warren into a more significant workload.
According to Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo, Warren had a grade 2 hamstring strain during his rookie season and only missed one game. On August 24, he told Steelers media he felt good about the injury and where he was in rehab.
Hopefully, Warren will keep progressing with the season — it’s a long road ahead.
