The Pittsburgh Steelers will be back on the practice fields of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe on Wednesday after having Tuesday off. Cornerback Senquez Golson, however, won’t be on the field for quite a while as the second-year player out of Mississippi reportedly suffered a Lisfranc injury to his right foot during Monday’s practice. While the team has yet to officially update Golson’s injury, general manager Kevin Colbert didn’t sound too optimistic about the cornerback’s short-term future during an interview on DVE Radio.
“We always let coach talk about the injuries and we’ll stay consistent with that,” said Colbert. “He’ll address it tomorrow. It didn’t look good and I’m not real encouraged at this point.”
When Golson went down injured Monday, rookie safety Sean Davis, the team’s second-round selection this year, stepped in immediately as the first-team slot cornerback.
“I had to play first- and second-team nickel,” Davis said at the conclusion of practice. “I got a lot of reps today.”
The Maryland product liked what he did with those extra reps, too.
“I was on point today,” Davis said.
Colbert was passed along those Monday post practice comments during his Tuesday night interview.
“I love that enthusiasm and at least he has the right attitude,” Colbert said. “I think once the reality of this hits him, how big this is, I mean training camp is one thing, he’ll get a taste of it next week when Detroit comes in and you go up against somebody else, and then of course the preseason games and when the regular season hits, it’s a whole different deal. But if Sean has that attitude and that’s what he’s saying, and that’s what he’s believing, that’s great and we just hope his play matches up with it and we hope he can step up and help us.”
With it looking like Golson will be lost for quite a while and possibly the entire season, Colbert was asked if he’s confident in what the team has right now at defensive backs is capable of absorbing another long term injury like they had last year with Golson.
“We don’t know what we have yet,” Colbert said. “We’re really four practices into it and it’s real, real early. So I know we always like to give ourselves the opportunity to see what we have and see how it comes together. And throughout the preseason, our scouts will be out, we’ll be watching other teams and if there’s people there that can help us at any position, of course we’ll entertain it. But we like to find out what we have first, but in all honesty, I couldn’t tell you how effective some guys can and can’t be, because it’s so early.”
Last year at this same time the Steelers traded for cornerback Brandon Boykin after finding out they wouldn’t have Golson for his rookie season due to a shoulder injury. Several weeks later they signed cornerback Ross Cockrell after he had been released by the Buffalo Bills. In other words, the team could still decide to add a more experienced cornerback between now and the regular season. For now, however, they appear to be fine with adding former TCU cornerback Kevin White Jr. as a depth body for training camp purposes.
“We’ll be fine,” said Colbert. “We’ll find options and we’ll have 22 starters come September 12th when we play Washington and it’s our job to make the best of things.”
