The Pittsburgh Steelers are closing out a three-game stretch across just 11 days with a tough Week 17 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs this Christmas day.
It’s been a tough week and a half for Pittsburgh, dropping from 10-3 to 10-5 with back-to-back losses to the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens. During this stretch, the Steelers have lost many players due to injuries, including two cornerbacks, a starting safety, a defensive tackle, and multiple depth players.
Steelers star defensive end and captain Cameron Heyward, as transcribed by Sports Illustrated’s Noah Strackbein, stated that he’s searching for answers about the consequences for players in stretches like these before the game against the Chiefs.
“I think that’s definitely a concern,” Heyward said. “It’s a (Players Association) thing as well as the NFL thing. You don’t want to mess up the product, but we’ve been saying this since we got Thursday Night games. It’s not easy. I played on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday you name it, we signed up for it. But what does it do to the players? And I wish we had better answers.”
“It would be better if we had a bye week before a Wednesday game. We just got done playing Saturday, but I can’t cry about it. It’s not something I’m really focused on right now. We’re not afforded that luxury of even trying to think about it. There’s bigger fish to fry, and the Chiefs are coming here and Christmas is that day, so looking forward to it.”
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The Steelers have clinched a playoff spot but are still fighting to win their division in the last two games of the regular season. They need to stay focused on their matchups against the Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals to close the season.
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