After trading for cornerback Dashaun Phillips Wednesday night, the former member of the Washington Redskins didn’t appear to get any playing time on defense in the Pittsburgh Steelers Saturday night preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts and in case I missed him, no work on special teams, either.
Phillips, who the Steelers traded backup center Lucas Crowley for late Wednesday, was listed in the official game book as one of several Pittsburgh players who didn’t see any playing time Saturday night. He was probably held out of action due to lack of preparation time.
During his Thursday press conference, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin left the door open for Phillips to play against the Colts.
“Excited to be out getting the new guy in the fold and maybe getting a chance to see what he’s capable of in a short period of time,” Tomlin said of Phillips, who was the Redskins regular season opener staring slot cornerback in 2016. “I know he’s an NFL-capable player. He’s played in this league. He’s played against us. All of those things were attractive.”
Assuming that Phillips was completely held out of Saturday’s game, one would think that he’ll get his first action in a Steelers uniform Thursday night in the team’s preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers. With that said, he’ll likely need to have an extremely strong showing in that contest if he’s going to have any chance at making the final 53-man roster.
As I speculated immediately after the Steelers traded for Phillips, he appears best-suited to land on the team’s 10-man practice squad after final cuts are made.
