Pittsburgh Steelers rookie tight end JJ Galbreath suffered an undisclosed injury at some point during the team’s mandatory minicamp, Alan Saunders of Steelers Now reports.
Saunders says that Galbreath stood off to the side for most of his time at minicamp, and multiple players confirmed he was dealing with an undisclosed injury.
“Galbreath spent most of minicamp on the sidelines with an undisclosed injury, confirmed to Steelers Now by several players,’ Saunders wrote.
In an interview with Steelers tight end coach Alfredo Roberts, he confirmed the Steelers have searched for some outside tight end help, and they will not shy away from any addition.
The reported interest has been in Miami’s Jonnu Smith and Atlanta’s Kyle Pitts. Donald Parham was lost for the season after suffering a torn Achilles in OTAs.
“The more the merrier,” Roberts told Saunders. “You’d always like to add great players. I’m always blessed with great guys that love to play the game. Donald Parham, who I was familiar with from the Chargers, would have added another piece to us, for sure. It’ll be interesting how we add. If we go into a game and we play with what we have, I’m good with that. If we add one more, we’ll sharpen that blade and get them in the mix.”
Galbreath’s injury is unlikely to be major, as head coach Mike Tomlin noted the team did not suffer an injury they would consider to be significant for training camp.
Rookie quarterback Will Howard has been impressed by Galbreath, and says he has been feeding the rookie early on in OTAs.
“That’s the guy, man,” Howard said. “We’ve been doing a lot of work, us rookies, off to the side and walking through stuff after practice. Every rep that we don’t get we make sure we bang those out. Shoot, JJ’s been open for me.”
Despite standing at just 6-foot-3, 231 pounds, Galbreath ran a 4.67 40-yard dash and his explosion drills were impressive, too. He had a 38-inch vertical and 10-foot-3-inch broad jump. Even his agilities were great, as Galbreath posted a 4.20 short shuttle and 6.02 3-cone.
He played through a nagging shoulder injury in 2024, but still posted 469 yards on 32 receptions. His best season statistically came in 2023, where he had 579 receiving yards on 36 receptions with five touchdowns.