Sep 1st, 2012 at 7:00 am by Dominic Di Tolla
Am I the only one which saw shades of Joe Theismann’s horrific injury when the replays of Sean Spence’s knee were shown? ACL, LCL, and Dislocated Knee Cap are never a good combination, and to think Spence will contribute anything to this club by the time 2014 rolls around is a bit of stretch. With Spence and the Rookie class in mind, let’s cross our fingers for Spence, David DeCastro, and Mike Adams all to get healthy as soon as humanly possible.
But instead of adopting a “Negative Nancy” attitude about the fact that the Steelers’ top three draft picks from this past April have sustained knee injuries, I would like to focus on some more positive things, namely the 53-man roster which the team will be taking into this season. The most interesting an intriguing thing to me about the final roster was the number of UDFA’s which made the opening day 53-man roster. So I thought I would take time out to recognize those which made the most of their efforts, and discuss what they could contribute to the team now and hopefully over the course of their careers’.
Drew Butler
Granted, Drew Butler did not have any competition for his job as Jeremy Kapinos missed the entirety of the preseason due to injury. Yet Butler did a consistent enough job to not only keep the position, but prevented the Coaching Staff from scouring the waiver wire for somebody else. On the preseason, Butler punted 28 Times for an average of almost 46 Yards (45.8), and now enters the season with the Punter job all to himself. The Steelers have not had a Pro Bowl Punter since Bobby Walden garnered the honors back before there was a League merger, and could sure use some consistency and stability at the position. Butler is young, has a strong leg, and appears to have the confidence of the Coaching Staff heading into this season.
Robert Golden
As for Golden, despite the fact that he injured his hamstring against the Panthers, the former Wildcat definitely played well enough on Special Teams and on Defense to earn a job on the Practice Squad. I liked Golden’s skill-set coming out of Tucson, and I was especially fond of the fact that he had a great deal of experience playing Cornerback and Safety in the Pac-12 pass-happy conference. Golden made 8 Tackles and 1 Interception on the preseason, and leapfrogged ahead of Da’mon Cromartie-Smith for one of the final roster spots. Ryan Mundy and Will Allen had better be on notice during the next couple of seasons, because Golden will be jockeying for chances to prove himself on Special Teams and in Nickel & Dime sub-packages on Defense as well.
Adrian Robinson .......
read more
http://nicepickcowher.com/2012/09/01/steelers-find-future-contributors-in-udfa-class-once-again/
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