The Steelers have released their end of week injury report and, with the exception of Lance Moore, things look pretty good. Here’s the injury report:
OUT: CB Brice McCain (groin), WR Lance Moore (groin)
DOUBTFUL: WR Martavis Bryant (shoulder)
QUESTIONABLE: OL Cody Wallace (finger)
PROBABLE: Matt Spaeth (hammstring), Sean Spence (knee), Greg Warren (knee)
With Lance Moore out, expect to see Justin Brown get some snaps in the slot.
As you likely know, Sean Spence suffered an injury to his right knee during Thursday night’s loss to the Eagles. After the game, Coach Tomlin described it as a PCL, but didn’t have any further information. According to Jerry Dulac of the Post Gazette, Spence sprained his PCL, and it will not require surgery.
https://twitter.com/gerrydulac/status/503272493248155649
As I mentioned the other night, most PCL injuries do not require surgery. Thankfully for Spence, this appears to be minor. Goodness knows the kid has overcome enough in his short NFL career. Hopefully he makes a quick recovery. Assuming it is a low grade sprain, his recovery time should be relatively short.
During the loss to the Eagles tonight, Sean Spence and Jason Worilds left the game early with knee injuries. Sean Spence’s knee injury was to his right knee, not the knee he had surgically repaired two years ago. Coach Tomlin described it as ‘probably a PCL’. He didn’t elaborate and probably doesn’t have specifics yet, but often times PCL injuries don’t require surgery. We’ll have to wait and see how significantly it was injured. PCL injuries usually seem better than they truly are at first, but worsen as time goes on.
Tomlin said Jason Worilds had a ‘knee of some description’. This could mean anything, but he was on the sideline icing it during the game, and he didn’t seem to be concerned about it. According to Ian Rapoport, taking him out was just a precaution.
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/502676079559991296
The only other injury coach Tomlin mentioned after the game was an ankle sprain to Cam Heyward.
Tribune beat reporter Mark Kaboly shared a couple videos from OTA practice today, presumably ones that he took with his phone. I think it’s safe to assume that’s the case, as he shares little quick cell phone vids from time to time.
In this first brief video, the linebackers are participating in a type of shuffle read drill. You can see that Spence appears to be moving very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFGHeTxOkzs
In this next video, the backers are working the bags. You’ll notice Ryan Shazier early in this one. You can see Spence on the right towards the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOOqlC4gVbA
We’re almost three months shy of the two year anniversary of Spence’s horrific injury. While these few second glimpses into padless drills can’t tell you very much, it’s good to see the linebacker looking unencumbered.
Phase two of the Steelers off-season workout program has gotten underway this week. There are plenty of familiar faces at the “voluntary” workouts, and a few that aren’t so familiar.
https://twitter.com/PaduaFootball/status/463667222527750144
According to the collective bargaining agreement, phase two of the off-season program may last 3 weeks. The Steelers will carry out the second phase of their workouts until Memorial Day weekend. The team will hold their rookie orientation next weekend, May 16-18th.
During this phase of the program, all members of the coaching staff are allowed to be on the field with the players. During the first phase, only strength and conditioning coaches were allowed on the field. While no “offense vs defense” type scrimmages or even 1 on 1 drills are allowed, coaches can run positional and individual drills with the players, as well as “perfect play” drills.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said it felt good to get back on the field. “Today we threw, we did some organized stuff where we could actually have coaches on the field,” he told the crew on 97.3 the fan this morning. “We’re only allowed 45 minutes, but we did do some no huddle plays just to get the verbiage back, and get the new guys learning some stuff. It felt really good to get out there and take some snaps from Pouncey.”
Coach Tomlin told reporters yesterday that Sean Spence had a clean bill of health, and Nick Williams had positive reviews in his rehabilitation, but couldn’t comment on their progress until they “hit the grass”. They are hitting the grass now. Granted, they won’t be participating in contact with pads for several weeks, but the coaching staff will be able to begin the process of evaluating their recoveries this week.
According to Mark Kaboly of the Tribune-Review, Sean Spence is working out in Florida, at Bommarito Performance Systems. If you’re not familiar with BPS, it’s a highly regarded athletic training facility in Miami, FL. Big name NFL players have utilized their services including Maurice Jones-Drew, Frank Gore, LeSean McCoy, and Steelers Running Back Jonathan Dwyer.
The Steelers placed Spence on Injured Reserve during the first week of November. He had a 3 week window to show the coaching staff he was ready to return, but broke his finger after he returned to practice. Spence tore his ACL and LCL, dislocating his knee cap, and suffering damage to his peroneal nerve during a play in preseason in August of 2012. His rehabilitation has come a long way since then, but he still has an uphill battle.
Kevin Colbert was asked about him yesterday. “We had one great day of practice last fall and that was very exciting for us and exciting for him. Unfortunately he broke his hand that same day. Maybe it was a blessing. Maybe that small sampling he gave us was enough to show that he can be fully recovered from this injury.
“Whether or not he can sustain it through an off-season, through a training camp, preseason, regular season, we won’t know, but what he showed us in that one day of practice we’re very encouraged where he is right now.” When asked if Spence would be in for the spring and summer training camps Colbert said, “The plans with Sean would be he’s certainly going to be in the mix as a possibility, but I think it would be naive to say that he’s over the hump because nobody knows at this point.”
Very few, if any, athletes make a full recovery after suffering damage to the peroneal nerve. So, the odds are not in Spence’s favor to play in a Steelers game this September. However, very few people expected the linebacker to progress as far as he did last year, let alone have a legitimate chance to return in November. Time will tell, and hopefully he continues to defy the odds.
As expected, the Steelers announced that they will place LB Sean Spence on Injured Reserve, thus ending his chances of making a return this season. Spence had just a few weeks to show the coaching staff he was ready for the 53 man roster, only 14 months after tearing his ACL and LCL, dislocating his knee cap, and suffering damage to his peroneal nerve.
Spence suffered a broken finger almost immediately after returning to practice last month, which only hurt his limited chances of getting the all clear from coaches. The fact that he was on reserve/PUP to start the season speaks volumes about how far he’s come from such a serious injury. Hopefully we’ll see the young linebacker who was praised by coaches as being a quick student last year, back on the field next spring.
Sean Spence told Scout writer Jim Wexell on Sunday that he’ll miss practice this week due to a broken finger. https://twitter.com/jimwexell/status/392291817393496064
This is bad news for Spence who had a limited window of opportunity to show the coaching staff that he’s ready and able to be activated to the 53 man active roster after next week. While that may have been a long shot without the finger injury, this almost certainly means that he will be sent to IR for the remainder of the season.
Mike Tomlin gave some injury updates to the media today. For starters, Markus Wheaton will be out again this week as he continues to recover from his finger surgery. Brett Keisel, who left the Jets game with what was initially described as a rib injury, is expected to be able to play on Sunday. Tomlin said his injury “is really kind of muscular in nature in that area”. He’ll probably experience some discomfort throughout the week, but we expect him to perk up and be ready to go. Lamarr Woodley has some inflamation in his right knee, that might limit him throughout the week, but should not limit him at all during the football game on Sunday.
Sean Spence will participate in a limited capacity this week, probably individual drills. Matt Spaeth is going to stay where he’s at for now. The team wants to see how Spence looks in drills on the field before determining how to proceed with his participation moving forward.
Coach Tomlin addressed the media in Latrobe today, and announced that the following players would start training camp on the PUP list: Heath Miller, Sean Spence, David Johnson, and Alameda Ta’amu. Heath Miller and Sean Spence come as no surprise obviously, but David Johnson and Alameda Ta’amu Continue reading