The Pittsburgh Steelers apparently avoided a serious injury to LS Christian Kuntz, as head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters today the injury to Kuntz is short term, according to Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Mike Tomlin said the injury to Christian Kuntz is short term, not long term.
— Ray Fittipaldo (@rayfitt1) August 18, 2025
Mark Kaboly of The Pat McAfee Show reported this morning that Kuntz suffered a sternum injury, and that it was believed to broken. A broken sternum typically isn’t a short-term injury, so it seems as if Kuntz’s injury is more of a minor one. The Steelers did sign LS Jake McQuaide to serve as their long snapper in Kuntz’s absence, but it doesn’t seem as if Kuntz will miss much time.
Per Chris Adamski of TribLive, Kuntz was in the locker room today with a jersey and no visible wrap.
FWIW, Steelers long snapper Christian Kuntz was at practice and in a jersey and was in the locker room as affable as ever, with no visible wrap/cast or other encumberment
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) August 18, 2025
Kuntz was injured on a punt return at the end of the first quarter, and DL Logan Lee served as the team’s long snapper the rest of the way. After the game, Tomlin said he thought that the Steelers got some good news on Kuntz, and a short-term injury would certainly qualify as such.
With Week 1 less than three weeks away, it still remains a question if Kuntz will be ready to go, but it sounds far more likely he will be than it did this morning. Since becoming Pittsburgh’s long snapper in 2021, Kuntz has started every game, and he’ll look to keep that streak alive heading into this season.
It’s a day of good injury news for the Steelers, with WR Calvin Austin III seemingly working his way back from his ailment, as he got some work in off to the side during today’s practice. The Steelers would like to have Austin healthy and ready to go for Week 1, and the third-year veteran working some today is a sign that he might be ready to go.
We’ll see when Kuntz ultimately returns to the field, but it’s good news that he won’t be out a while. Short term isn’t any sort of official timeline, but it seems as if he avoided a serious injury that would knock him out for any substantial length of time, and it sounds like there’s a chance he may be ready for the start for the season.
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