When Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell initially injured his foot in August, there were reports that he would miss six to eight weeks as he recovered from the sprain.
The Steelers were more optimistic about the timeline and Bell said last week that he hoped to play in Week Two against the Bengals, but a report from Dejan Kovacevic and Alan Robinson of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review indicates that won’t happen. And Bell won’t be returning in the third or fourth week of the season either.
According to the report, the team is classifying Bell’s foot sprain as a Lisfranc injury and that they hope he can return after another month on the sideline. That would pretty much be the initially reported timeline for Bell’s return as well as the injury that the Steelers originally feared he suffered. Bell’s absence could extend beyond that point as Lisfranc injuries respond differently and, as we saw with Maurice Jones-Drew last season, they sometimes wind up needing surgical repair after weeks of rest.
Isaac Redman is going to get a chance to redeem himself against the Bengals this weekend after leading a rushing attack that piled up a grand total of 32 yards in the opener and Jonathan Dwyer has returned to town, giving the Steelers the same backfield duo as the one they were trying to replace when they drafted Bell in the second round back in April.