The Steelers began their preparation for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles, a game Coach Mike Tomlin dubbed as the ‘Pennsylvania State Championship.’

Receivers George Pickens is dealing with a hamstring injury that forced him to miss Sunday’s win over the Bengals and didn’t practice on Wednesday.

Pickens, who according to Tomlin was dealing with hamstring discomfort after practice last Thursday and was limited in his work on Friday out of caution, landed on the inactive list on Sunday as a game day decision.

“I wanted to see what he looked like when he got to the stadium, and then make a determination of how many plays we thought would be appropriate to utilize him in,” said Tomlin. “If he wasn’t going to be a full participant, we wanted to gear his participation toward weighty passing game moments.

But when we got to the stadium, it was evident that maybe the circumstance was a little bit more significant than we had hoped.

“We made the prudent decision in terms of shutting him down and not allowing a small problem to become a bigger one. We had an opportunity to get him an MRI. The injury did show up on MRI and is a little bit more significant than what we imagined.

“We’re just in the mindset now just getting him healthy as quickly as we possibly can. There’s a potential for this week, but it’s an outside chance. If you press me, I’d probably say he’s out or could be characterized as doubtful as we sit here (Tuesday).

“But again, like we always do, we’ll go through the normal procedure. We’ll let participation be our guide in terms of availability and then obviously the quality of that participation.”

In the words of Tomlin, others on the injury list this week are in better position than Pickens from the standpoint of playing against the Eagles, although Larry Ogunjobi and DeShon Elliott didn’t practice on Wednesday.

“Larry Ogunjobi with his groin and DeShon Elliott with some hamstring tightness, we’ll watch those guys, particularly in the early part of the week,” said Tomlin. “Hopefully there’s an uptick in their participation and the quality of it as we push forward toward game time.

“Donte Jackson had some spotty availability in game. He was sick on Sunday but was able to get through. I don’t imagine that he’ll be limited. And some other guys got some minor bumps and bruises associated with competition.

“As we always do, we won’t waste a lot of time focusing our energies on those not available to us. We’ll appropriately focus our energies on those that are and how we divide that labor up and how we can best position them to perform and play winning football individually and collectively.”

The full injury report is below.

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