Week 1 of the NFL regular season is officially here for all 32 teams. Regardless of conference or division, the exhibition season is over, and now starts the real preparation for upcoming games. This means this week will be the first week with official injury reports. Considering there is a near two week layoff between Week 3 of the preseason and the start of the regular season, most teams don’t typically have any names to list on their weekly injury report.

For the Pittsburgh Steelers, there was one player who could have, and still might, found his way on an injury report when Mike Tomlin meets with the media Tuesday to lead up to the Week 1 game vs. the San Francisco 49ers. That player would be offensive guard Nate Herbig, who missed a large portion of the preseason with a shoulder injury.

There was some good news on that front, and it was Herbig’s return to practice in the bonus week the team received last week.

“My first day back to practice, I didn’t know how my shoulder was going to be,” said Herbig. “But just getting back there, getting back in the offense, really helped a lot.”

If there was another indication of Herbig’s overall health, it would have been the moves the team made prior to cutting their roster to 53 players. Releasing players like Kevin Dotson and Kendrick Green was a huge sign the team felt good about Herbig’s shoulder and overall health.

With Herbig back in the fold at practice, he’s just focusing on his fundamentals and being willing to test his shoulder.

“I can’t speak for others, but for me I just try to focus on my fundamentals, especially coming off an injury,” said Herbig. “I try to make my tools sharper, work on my technique and focus on my position, whatever position I am playing.”

Outside of Herbig, the Steelers should be a healthy team heading into the big game at Acrisure Stadium Sunday at 1pm EST. As stated earlier, Mike Tomlin will address the media Tuesday, and will give an update on any players dealing with ailments before Week 1.

In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they gear up for the games which count.