Pittsburgh Steelers LB Robert Spillane spoke to the media Thursday in the locker room and was asked several questions pertaining to last week’s win on the road against the Baltimore Ravens as well as the team’s upcoming regular season finale at home against the Cleveland Browns.
Spillane was asked about fellow LB Mark Robinson’s performance on Sunday night and what it was like to be out there as both Spillane and Robinson got to start against Baltimore. Spillane had nothing but positive takeaways for Robinson in his biggest performance of his rookie campaign to-date.
“I love Mark Rob,” Spillane said to the media Thursday on video from Steelers.com. “From Day 1 when he got in here, all he wanted to do was learn and get better and I got a lot of respect for guys like that. So, I’ve tried to help him along his process, and I thought he did a great job in his first big performance.”
Spillane has been the unlikely stabilizing force of the LB core the last several games for the Steelers, starting the last three contests and logging 100% of the snaps in all three of those games with Myles Jack battling a groin injury. Mark Robinson 26 defensive snaps (50%) in his largest exposure of the season. Despite being healthy, Devin Bush logged only five defensive snaps last night, appearing to get benched in favor of Robinson who Tomlin mentioned as a better fit for this contest due to his combative, confrontational approach to ball.
As referenced in our film room of Robinson’s performance at Steelers Depot, Robinson was an energizer bunny, visibly showing his eagerness and passion to be on the field and hit someone. He played with great effort in pursuit and match physicality with physicality in what normally can be a slugfest matchup between the Ravens and Steelers.
Still, Mark Robinson was visibly raw at the intricacies of the position including post-snap reads, coverage, and consistent wrap-up tackling due to his smaller stature and coming in too fast in attempt to make a play. Regardless, Spillane put it best saying that Robinson represented himself well in his first performance of the season as a former seventh-round pick that has only played LB for two years now. Hopefully Robinson can continue this upward trend to conclude the 2022 season and into 2023 as a physical presence at ILB the Steelers have desperately needed.
