No surgery for Tuitt’s ailing arm

Defensive end Stephon Tuitt did not put a timetable on his return after injuring his left biceps, but said it will be as soon as the strength returns to his arm “and I can defend myself.”

Tuitt said his arm went numb on the second play of the game in Cleveland when he reached to drop running back Isaiah Crowell for a 9yard loss.

But a magnetic resonance imaging exam Monday morning showed Tuitt didn’t have a biceps tear that would require surgery and possibly end his season.

“It was such a relief,” Tuitt said.

Coach Mike Tomlin left open the possibility Tuitt could play Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. Tuitt would not say, but he seemed very optimistic.

“We’re going to see throughout the week,” Tuitt said Tuesday night on his weekly radio show on WDVE-FM 102.5.

“If I get enough strength in my arm to push back and defend myself, I’ll be ready to get back out there with the pads on. If not I’ll cheer my teammates on.”

Tuitt is not wearing any type of wrap on his arm and said his flexibility is unaffected, waving and rotating his arm to show he had no difficulty. He said it was “shocked” when his arm wentnumb when he reached to stop Crowell.

“You work so hard and I did a good job in the offseason conditioning my body,” Tuitt said. “But we wanted to be cautious and not go back out there right away.”

Tomlin said Tuitt’s “short-term availability is in question” and the team will monitor his arm strength and how it functions. But when asked if there is a remote chance Tuitt could play against the Vikings, Tomlin said, “There is.”

Tuitt, who signed a new six-year, $61.05 million contract a day earlier, made two big plays to start the game in Cleveland, including stopping running back Isaiah Crowell for a 9-yard loss on second down.

It was on that play when he injured his arm and never returned.

Penalties upend balance

Tomlin said the number of penalties in Cleveland — 13 for 144 yards — “kills drives, kills balance and reduces the number of snaps [55].” The Steelers scored only two touchdowns and managed just 290 yards on offense.

So you can have whatever discussion you want to have regarding our lack of production on offense,” Tomlin said. “You can chalk it up to Le’Veon [Bell] missing camp, you can talk about them being dominate, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about.

“The reality is when you are penalized like we were in the game, you are going to lose your balance. It’s going to put you behind chains. You’re not going to get as many snaps as you’d like, and the point total is going to reflect it, and it did for us.”

When he was asked again about Bell perhaps looking rusty from missing training camp, Tomlin cut off the question and barked, “You can sing that Le’Veon Bell camp song all you want. He’s here. He’s working. It’s Week 2. I’m done with it.”

Wilcox in protocol

Meantime, Tomlin said backup safety J.J. Wilcox, who was involved in a goalline collision against the Browns, is in concussion protocol.

Replay roughness

Tomlin said an unnecessary roughness penalty against cornerback William Gay was called after the officials watched the play on the stadium replay board. Tomlin, a member of the league’s competition committee, said “I’m all for player safety, but I don’t accept that.”

Haden comes out on top

Cornerback Joe Haden said his main objective against his former team on Sunday was to not let the ball get behind him and give up a deep pass.

The Browns tried several times to beat the former Pro Bowl cornerback over the top, and it appeared they were successful in the second quarter on a deep pass to receiver Kasen Williams down the right sideline. Williams, though, failed to get both feet inbounds after making the catch.

But according to the coaches, Haden was not at fault on the play. His job was to jam Williams at the line of scrimmage and get deep help from one of the safeties.

“I just wanted to make sure I kept the ball in front of me and not try to get beat deep,” Haden said. “They threw the ball over there a few times, made a couple plays. I’m just happy we came out on top.”