Trib-Live Reporter Dejan Kovacevic is reporting that Pittsburgh Steelers’ tight end Matt Spaeth is out for the season with a lisfranc injury to his foot. This type of break is one that occurs in the middle of the foot and typically takes longer to deal with in terms of surgery and rehab.
*Update – It looks like Spaeth may miss 8-10 weeks rather than the season. No word on how the Steelers will proceed at this time.
With no reason to doubt the report, we must go ahead and discuss what the Steelers are facing now at the tight end position.
Spaeth was seen as the clear-cut starter at tight end while team MVP Heath Miller rehabs from his severe knee injury suffered near the end of last season. With Spaeth out of duty, second year tight end David Paulson will more than likely slide into the starting position. Paulson is typically the ‘move’ tight end for the Steelers but they will be held now by Jamie McCoy.
David Johnson is still on the PUP list but should he be activated, he could help add depth at the position. It wouldn’t be unfair to suggest the Steelers could look at potential targets in free agency especially once cuts start to happen but regardless, the level of talent out there isn’t exactly going to inspire confidence.
The team had extremely big plans for Spaeth who is a far better blocker than he is receiver. The loss of Spaeth will have a significant affect on the ability of the Steelers to run the ball, especially to the outside.
We’ll try to update things as we get more information.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 4pm ET talking Steelers.
1 comment
Didn’t Santonio Holmes have that injury? And he’s still out for the 1st 3-4 weeks. We’ll so much for the REUNION tour..No Burress No Spathe ..and William Gay??? Looks like he’s back to his old ways of gettin tourchd.