The last update on Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Sean Spence that we had included word that he was working out back in Miami at Bommarito Performance Systems. However, on Thursday at the 2014 NFL Scouting Combine, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert was asked to again update Spence’s status in an interview with Alex Marvez on Sirius NFL Radio.
“Yeah, we’re very optimistic,” said Colbert of Spence. “Sean, we had a window when he was on PUP where he began to practice and he had a great first practice. Unfortunately, he broke his hand in that practice, but we saw enough in that one day to say, ‘OK, there’s a chance he can do this.’
“He did come back at the end with a club on his hand, but that was really a little unfair. You couldn’t judge him. But whether or not he can withstand a whole offseason, training camp, preseason, regular season – that is yet to be seen. But we were optimistic about the results and if you had asked me last year at the same time, I couldn’t have said that.”
As you tell from Colbert’s comments, nothing really has changed in regard to Spence. While he is still optimistic about the young linebacker being able to play again, he certainly still has a lot to prove from now through training camp.
What the Steelers do this year in the draft might shed a little light on how they really feel about the Miami product’s chances of making a full recovery. Should they draft another inside linebacker in the first three rounds, that might be a sign that they really aren’t as optimistic as they appear to be right now.
Moving forward, I don’t we will know much more about Spence’s road back from the horrible knee injury he suffered until the OTA and mini camps get underway. Until then, expect the same kind of response from Colbert when asked to give an update on him.
