The Steelers began their preparation for Sunday’s Wild Card Game against the Buffalo Bills, practicing at Acrisure Stadium.

And there is good news.

Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who missed the last three regular season games with a knee injury, was a full participant on Wednesday. In addition, the team restored safety Damontae Kazee to the 53-man roster.

“We’ll let the amount of participation and the quality of his participation be our guide, but we’re optimistic about his inclusion,” said Coach Mike Tomlin on Tuesday. “As we get a guy like Kazee back into the fold, we’ll evaluate him from a conditioning perspective and define a division of labor for him as we push through the week.

“Over the last several weeks, we’ve talked quite a bit about guys like Myles Jack and Eric Rowe and appropriately so. Their contributions have been significant, coupled with the fact that they didn’t start this journey with us or with anybody in some instances, their performances have been even more remarkable. We’re thankful for that, but we’re also thankful for the return of guys like Minkah and Kazee.

“And so, if it creates a long logjam in terms of talent, or people available to us, then that is a good problem to have. It’s a better problem to have than some of the issues that we’ve had in terms of trying to figure out who and how to play. We’ll sort through some of those things as we’re game planning.”

And it is no surprise linebacker T.J. Watt didn’t practice. Watt has already been ruled out for Sunday’s game with a knee injury suffered in the Steelers win over the Baltimore Ravens.

“There haven’t been a lot of times where I think about not having T.J. to be quite honest with you,” said Tomlin. “But we’ve got depth at that position. That’s why we went out and thoughtfully acquired Markus Golden. That’s why we drafted (Nick) Herbig. We’re as deep at that position as we’ve been in some time.

“We’re comfortable with the quality of depth. (Kyron) Johnson has had a helmet for the last number of weeks, although his contributions have been primarily on special teams. There’s another guy at the position that knows what to do that’s available to us.

“We have an appropriate number of people. We have guys that are capable. We have guys that have been here. We have guys that know what to do. So, we’re going utilize all of that.”

Tomlin was quick to admit it won’t take just one person to replace Watt, who finished the 2023 as the NFL sack leader with 19.

“Playing without T.J. is significant,” said Tomlin. “But to be quite honest with you, we played without a lot of people this year. It’s just another opportunity for us to strike a blow for the team and to display what team really means, a collective of
individuals that work together in an effort to produce an outcome.

“It’s not going to be a one-man job in terms of replacing T.J. Like I stood before you and said similar things when Cam Heyward missed a block of games. It is going to be a committee approach. Even in doing so, we better strengthen our output in other areas, because T.J. is one of a kind.

“But that’s ball. There’s an attrition component to it. That’s what makes it the ultimate team game. I’m excited about preparing this group, knowing on the front end of this week, the resources at our disposal, the manpower, the talents, the amount of time and so forth. And now we get an opportunity to prepare and lean in on some legitimate action.”

The full injury report is below.