Buckeyes in the NFL, Week Nine: Doran Grant gets the Call Up & Every Other Former Ohio State Player is Injured

Sifting through the comments to this article on a weekly basis reveals two things: one, some of you long-time commenters still miss the previous iteration and, two, the number of Buckeyes on the Steelers irritates the vast majority of users. Well, it just got worse.

Pittsburgh promoted Doran Grant to the 53-man roster, Wednesday, giving them a total of five Buckeyes. He joins Mike Adams, Will Allen, Cam Heyward and Ryan Shazier, eclipsing the Panthers' four. Adams is currently on the PUP list and recent CBA changes actually give him more time to practice before the team has to make a decision to place him on IR.

The Steelers waived Grant after drafting in him in the fourth round of this year's draft. He signed with their practice squad shortly thereafter and finally got the call up before week nine. He did not end up being activated for the game against Oakland – only 46 players are allowed to dress. 

Grant will help Pittsburgh while they deal with injuries in the secondary. Prior to promoting Grant, they only had four active corners on the roster. Rumors circulating around the team suggest the Steelers want to move him to safety, although he hasn't practiced at that position this season.

Six Buckeyes Suffer Recent Injuries

At this point, it feels like Grant is the only healthy Buckeye. Ohio State dominated the injury report over the last two weeks – Jonathan Hankins, Brian Hartline, Carlos Hyde, Nick Mangold, Andrew Norwell and Donte Whitner all made appearances in that span.

Hankins suffered the worst injury of the bunch, Sunday, at least in terms of his ability to play football again this season:

Jonathan Hankins has a torn pectoral and is out for the game. And likely the rest of the year.

— Tom Rock (@TomRock_Newsday) November 8, 2015

He'll have an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury. It's a huge blow to the Giants, as Hankins is Pro Football Focus' No. 3 overall run-stopping defensive tackle.

 "[Torn pectorals] are usually not very good," Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said, via Newsday.com. 

Hartline and Whitner are in the league's concussion protocol and missed Thursday night's game against the Bengals. Hyde sat out a second-consecutive game due to a stress fracture in his left foot and did not practice all week. Andrew Norwell left last Monday night's game against the Colts due to a hamstring injury and he was not active for Sunday's win over the Packers.

If that isn't exhausting enough, Nick Mangold tried to give it a go last week but missed the Jets' matchup with the Raiders. He played Sunday, but did not finish the game because his recurring neck injury flared up again. The Pro Bowl center only played the first four series versus the Jaguars.

Mangold will deal with a quick turnaround, as he attempts to play against former head coach Rex Ryan and the Bills, Thursday. Naturally, he refused to rule himself out.

"I can’t live that way. I’m very optimistic," Mangold said, via the New York Post. "Get in there and get back to work and hopefully, things go better."

Play of the WeEk

Denver's hopes of an undefeated season are over thanks to a slow start against Indianapolis. Bradley Roby did his best to preserve a tie ballgame before Adam Vinatieri hit the go-ahead 55-yard field goal:

@MileHighReport Bradley Roby deflection pic.twitter.com/gNcX69s8qY

— Oscar Gamble (@OscarGambler) November 9, 2015

How They Fared in Week Nine