Tag: Vance McDonald

Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin sheds light on team’s COVID situation

The Steelers face more challenges in regards to stopping the spread of the virus among the team.

After Steelers tight end Vance McDonald tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, Pittsburgh used an abundance of caution and placed four other players on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Tuesday.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spoke at length about his team’s situation in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Here’s a rundown of action the Steelers are have taken and are taking to limit potential virus spread and exposure, according to Tomlin:

  • Masks are worn when traveling 100 percent of the time.
  • Ben Roethlisberger, linebacker Vince Williams, running back Jaylen Samuels and offensive lineman Jerald Hawkins will work remotely this week. As long as they continue to test negative, as Roethlisberger has once, the four will practice on Saturday and play Sunday.
  • Players will only be at the facility for walk-throughs and practices. All meetings will be conducted virtually.
  • Weight training will be done rotationally.
  • Training room schedule will also be rotational. Should Roethlisberger need treatment for his knee injuries, he’ll get it.
  • The Steelers “speed dial New York often” to keep on top of all things regarding protocol, testing, and when it’s safe for once positive players to return.
  • Contract tracing devices track the extent of contact and close contact. When someone tests positive, NFL officials use the data to help determine a “level of concern regarding the potential exposure of people.” Said officials are in charge of putting players and personnel into categories or placing on reserve/COVID-19 list.

Tomlin DOES. NOT. CARE. about the challenges that come with working remotely. “We’ve had a lot of practice here in 2020 in installing and giving information and receiving information remotely. We’ve done this with the entire playbook multiple times already in this process. We have no reservations about the remote meetings this week.”

Tomlin added that he and the Steelers have “a great deal of confidence in the protocol, our participation in it, its effectiveness.”

Let’s hope there are no more positives and that their participation in protocol leads to a healthy team taking the field on Sunday.

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Covid-19 concerns cancel Cowboys practice

The Dallas Cowboys will cancel Wednesday’s practice after sharing the field with a Steelers player who tested positive for Covid-19.

The Dallas Cowboys entered their bye week hoping to dissect the first half of their season, perhaps even escape the 24-hour news cycle. That lasted less than a day as it turns out they shared the field with tight end Vance McDonald from the Pittsburgh Steelers. McDonald tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.

The Cowboys have been unlucky in lots of ways this year, but have largely escaped the clutches of the pandemic through the first two months of the season. Out of an abundance of caution, they will be canceling their next scheduled practice on Wednesday in an effort to stop the spread just in case anyone on their sideline was exposed.

It’s a tough look for the league that has been hit especially hard in recent weeks with positive tests. It’s unclear when this specific test was administered, but the timing will cast aspersion on his absence from Friday’s Steelers practice due to an unspecified illness.

Luckily for Dallas, they’ve got nothing to do this weekend but recover and prepare for the second half of a lost season. They are 2-7 and have now extended their losing streak to four games.

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Steelers’ Vance McDonald placed on reserve/COVID-19 list

The Steelers have placed their tight end on the reserve/COVID-19 list. He traveled to Dallas with the team this weekend.

According to the NFL wire report, Steelers tight end Vance McDonald has been placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

McDonald was listed on the injury report on Friday with an illness but was cleared to travel with the team to Dallas.

Per the NFL’s COVID-19 policies and procedures manual, the player(s) who tested positive is are immediately isolated. They are forbidden access to team facilities, not allowed to have any direct contact with fellow players or team personnel and are placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

In the event a player develops symptoms for the first time while inside the team facility, he must go through the following protocols:

  • Immediately isolate in a separate room
  • Continue to wear a mask
  • Be transported and quarantined at home ASAP

Players can return when the following has been met:

Following a positive test, if the player is asymptomatic, he can return once:

  • 10 days have passed since the initial positive test; OR
  • Five days have passed since the initial positive test and the player receives two consecutive negative PCR virus tests at least 24 hours apart within that five-day period

Following a positive test, if the player demonstrates symptoms, he can return when:

  • At least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared; AND
  • At least 72 hours have passed since he last experienced symptoms

In either case, a player who tests positive must be cleared by his team’s head physician before returning.

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Steelers’ Vance McDonald, ill this week, cleared to travel with team to Dallas

The tight end traveled with his team to play in Steelers-Cowboys matchup tomorrow.

Vance McDonald, who traveled with the team this afternoon, was listed on the Steelers injury report on Friday with an illness. That illness was not the coronavirus.

McDonald would not have traveled today if he had the virus. It’s that time of year where people and, yes, players get things called a “cold” and the “flu.”

Though the type of illness is not specified on team reports, you can rest assured it wasn’t COVID-19.

Here’s why.

If a player tests positive for the virus, he is designated reserve/COVID-19. This designation is specifically for a player who either tests positive for COVID-19 or who has been in “close contact with infected person or persons.”

After Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list this week, our friends over at For The Win posted a great piece that breaks everything down nicely.

Per TribLive’s Joe Rutter, Steelers tight end Vance McDonald boarded a plane headed for Dallas Saturday afternoon.

For more information, check out these links:

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Pittsburgh Steelers TEs are MIA

Through the first two weeks of the season, there hasn’t been much involvement from the Steelers’ tight ends.

Even with the success the Steelers offense has had so far, it hasn’t been extraordinary.

With the addition of tight end Eric Ebron in the offseason, it was presumed that he and Vance McDonald would be involved early and often. That hasn’t been the case so far, but it could certainly open up the offense.

Mike Tomlin said in his weekly press conference that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

“It’s early. Keep watching… At this juncture in the season, a two-game body of work is not a big enough sample to assess. We are pleased with the development of [Eric] Ebron and his role within our system and time will tell that story as we proceed.”

Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner had this to say in the early days of training camp about two tight end formations:

“I think that it automatically puts yourself in that position. Now again, availability is always the biggest issue when you play that really tough position. You have to play it somewhat like a racecar. But you have to be able to be a Ford truck, too. They play in a world that is very physical, and their availability will allow us to utilize two tight ends, if not more, and that will be awesome. I always feel comfortable when I have two tight ends, dependable, that can equally be good in the pass and the run.”

There are 11 targets, six receptions and 67 yards between Ebron and McDonald so far.

With the Indianapolis Colts, Ebron faced the Houston Texans twice in 2019. In those matchups, the tight end was 8-for-10 with 114 yards and a touchdown.

Considering Tomlin hinted of things to come and Fichtner seemed open to utilizing two tight end formation; hopefully, they’ll unveil it sooner than later.

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Steelers TE Vance McDonald loves Ben Roethlisberger’s ‘hunger for winning a championship’

Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Vance McDonald is excited to have No. 7 back.

Everyone is thrilled to have Ben Roethlisberger back in the fold, including tight end Vance McDonald, who is entering his fourth season with the Steelers.

From the time that he arrived in Pittsburgh three years ago to now, McDonald said that he sees a different Roethlisberger — in a good way.

“The way he attacks the day is just different than I’d seen him since I got here in 2017,” McDonald said in a Tuesday post-practice press conference. “So I’m loving the leadership from him, I’m loving again just that hunger and fire. Again, I think you will notice that trickle down to the entire offense as we kind of get started rocking and rolling here. Guys are just flocking to him. The hunger is real from Ben.”

Roethlisberger wasn’t shy about proclaiming his lofty aspirations for the 2020 season. He said last week that he wants to win “Lombardis” and stressed multiple.

So, Big Ben’s voracity at training camp hasn’t surprised McDonald in the slightest.

“This is the most I’ve ever seen Ben in terms of just hunger for winning a championship,” McDonald said. “Not to say he didn’t have that in the past. I can respect that being down last season made it all the more real for him. And being able to go through a very heavy surgery for a quarterback thrower for him and to be where he is right now has made him so hungry.”

McDonald added that timing was a big issue last season with quarterbacks Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges. He said everything changed in terms of communication and routes and what to expect. “You don’t have to focus on that with Ben.”

The tight end can visualize how much the offense will improve with their fearless leader under center.

“Objectively — remove me from the fact I’m a Steeler — but I don’t see how our offense can not be super productive and be one of the top offenses in the NFL,” said McDonald. “I think the excitement is obviously everywhere here in our building (with) the potential we know we can reach, the numbers we know we can put up.”

In McDonald’s three seasons with Pittsburgh, he’s contributed 1,071 yards on 102 receptions and eight touchdowns. He’s currently under contract through the 2021 season.

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Steelers OC Randy Fichtner ranks 2nd in pass-heavy play-calling

Under offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, the Pittsburgh Steelers love to air it out.

ESPN writer, Mike Clay, performed an extensive analysis of NFL playcaller tendencies for every team and found that the Steelers have a penchant for airing it out — so much so that offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner is ranked as the second pass-heaviest playcaller in the NFL.

Here is what Clay wrote about Fichtner:

Fichtner took over for Todd Haley as the Steelers’ playcaller in 2018. There’s not much to take away here, as the offense was heavy on volume, passing and production with Ben Roethlisberger healthy in 2018, but quite the opposite without him in 2019. Both offenses were below average in aDOT (especially to the tight end) and both were above average in RB targets.

In Fichtner’s first outing as OC (he was promoted from quarterbacks coach) in 2018, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger led the league with an astounding 675 attempts. In doing so, Roethlisberger broke his previous career-high of 608 set in 2014, the only other time he threw 600+ passes.

2018 wasn’t that long ago, but the Steelers are now without a significant part of that offense — wide receiver Antonio Brown. However, thanks to the double-teaming of Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster led the team in receiving yards with 1,426 (to Browns’ 1,297).

There is no better word to use to describe the 2019 offense other than disastrous. Due to injuries and the loss of Roethlisberger for the season, Smith-Schuster wasn’t able to live up to “wide receiver No. 1” billing. The QB carousel of Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges resulted in a paltry 2,981 yards passing on 510 completions.

To say the least, 2020 will be an interesting season for the Steelers offense. There are three new faces — rookie WR Chase Claypool and free agents Derek Watt (fullback) and Eric Ebron (tight end). Add to that Smith-Schuster (in a contract year), Diontae Johnson, James Washington, Vance McDonald, and the receiving talents of running backs James Conner and Jaylen Samuels, and the Steelers should pose a nightmare for defenses. With a plethora of weapons available at Fichtner’s disposal and the return of Roethlisberger, the sky is the limit.

Only time will tell if Roethlisberger can return to form and be able to air it out to Fichtner’s standards. Either way, the NFL is a passing league, and the Steelers seem up for the challenge.

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Steelers 2020 NFL draft preview: Tight ends

Do the Steelers need to draft a tight end?

Mandatory Credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports

With just days to go until the 2020 NFL draft, we are going to go through all of the Steelers positional units to review the current state of the roster, gauge draft need and talk about some approaches to addressing the need.

This time, let’s talk tight ends.

Roster

The Steelers currently have three tight ends on their roster. To everyone’s surprise, they signed Eric Ebron to a two-year contract in March. Ebron and Steelers vet Vance McDonald will be the starters.

The backup job belongs to Zach Gentry who was drafted in 2019. He has only appeared in four games and has one reception to his name.

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Steelers officially sign TE Eric Ebron

The Pittsburgh Steelers made it official with tight end Eric Ebron

The Steelers announced Monday that they have signed tight end Eric Ebron to a two-year contract.

Ebron was drafted 10th overall by the Detroit Lions in 2014. He spent four seasons with the Lions and recorded 2,070 yards on 186 receptions with 11 touchdowns.

The TE signed a free agent with the Indianapolis Colts in 2018 and had a career-high 66 receptions for 750 yards and 13 touchdowns. The following season, with quarterback Andrew Luck retired, his numbers declined. Ebron was limited to 375 yards and three TDs after an ankle injury landed him on injured reserve in Week 12.

Though Ebron is not a blocking TE, he is a red-zone target that should compliment Vance McDonald well in Pittsburgh.

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What are the Steelers getting in TE Eric Ebron?

The Pittsburgh Steelers add depth at tight end.

The Steelers bolstered their tight end position Friday with the signing of TE Eric Ebron to a two-year deal worth $12 million.

A first-round selection by the Detroit Lions in 2014, Ebron never quite lived up to his draft status. He spent four seasons with the Lions and recorded 2,070 yards on 186 receptions with 11 touchdowns.

Ebron broke out his first year with the Indianapolis Colts, however. In 2018, he boasted a career-high 750 yards and 13 TDs and was selected to the Pro Bowl.

That was with Andrew Luck throwing to him.

In 2019, Ebron took a step back in the Jacoby Brissett-led offense. He had 50 percent fewer targets for 375 yards on 31 receptions and three scores.

Contributions in the end zone seem to be where it’s at for Ebron. According to Next Gen Stats, since 2018, Ebron has been targeted 19 times in the end zone (2nd-most among TE), and his nine scores on end zone targets are the most among TE.

Steelers’ TEs combined for only three end zone targets and one TD last season.

TE Vance McDonald and his new cohort both stand at 6-4, which QB Ben Roethlisberger has to love.

Giving Roethlisberger another option at receiver can only mean good things in an offense that struggled mightily without him last year.