Ben Roethlisberger among 4 Steelers placed on reserve / Covid-19 list

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Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is among four Pittsburgh Steelers the team placed on the NFL reserve / covid-19 roster on Tuesday.

The moves come a day after the team announced tight end Vance McDonald tested positive for coronavirus and was also placed on the list. According to the NFL’s Intensive Protocol, players deemed “at high risk” for contact with an individual who tests positive must self-isolate for five days.

The Steelers host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. All four players – Roethlisberger, starting linebacker Vince Williams, No.4 running back Jaylen Samuels and backup offensive tackle Jerald Hawkins – must come back negative in daily testing before they can join their teammates and tour the facilities at the UPMC sports complex. Rooney of the Steelers. If all do, they can play on Sunday, but none will be able to practice this week.

Roethlisberger is one of McDonald’s best friends on the team.

Williams is one of the defense’s most valuable members as an eight-year veteran and the only inside linebacker with significant regular-season experience in the NFL for the Steelers. His starting mate Devin Bush is out for the season with a torn ACL, and former practice squad player Robert Spillane has replaced him.

The Steelers traded to veteran Avery Williamson of the New York Jets last week. He was in uniform for Sunday’s victory at the Dallas Cowboys, but did not play because he had not yet trained with the Steelers. His first practice will be on Wednesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

The only other player listed as an inside linebacker on the active roster is Marcus Allen, a former security at Penn State and during his first two seasons in the NFL before being transferred to linebacker in August.

Mason Rudolph will get first team reps at quarterback this week and start Sunday if Roethlisberger is unable to. The Steelers also have Josh Dobbs and Devlin Hodges at quarterback, the latter on the practice squad. Hodges and Rudolph combined to start 14 games last season following Roethlisberger’s elbow surgery that ended the season.

McDonald missed practice Friday, for reasons listed in the league-mandated injury report by the Steelers as “illness.” McDonald’s traveled with the team to and from Texas over the weekend and played 20 shots in the 24-19 win over the Cowboys.

During this coronavirus-hit season, several teams have seen players miss training time due to contact tracing. Last week, the Baltimore Ravens had six players on the covid-19 roster throughout the week due to high-risk contact with cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who had taken a test on the day of a Nov. 1 game against the Steelers that came back positive the next day.

Some NFL games have been postponed this season – most notably, an October Steelers game in Tennessee after several members of the Titans organization tested positive – but none have been called off. The league said even the lack of a star player or quarterback would not be enough to postpone a game.

The New England Patriots played a game last month against the Kansas City Chiefs, for example, without starting quarterback Cam Newton because Newton was on the covid-19 list after testing positive.

McDonald’s can’t join the team until the end of next week at the earliest, and only after he’s symptom-free and negative.

Last week, an yet-to-be-identified Steelers staff member tested positive.

The Steelers were among a minority of teams in the league who had not had a positive player test since the start of the season in early September. The Steelers’ most recent use of the reserve / covid-19 roster was in the early stages of their training camp.

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Chris Adamski is a writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Chris by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .

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