4 dark horse Steelers candidates to take over Mark Barron’s role in 2020
By Tommy Jaggi
Robert Spillane
If we want to talk about a real dark horse candidate to take over Mark Barron’s role in 2020, look no further than Robert Spillane. Spillane was a former undrafted free agent who signed with the Tenessee Titans in May of 2018. He spent just two games on the Titans roster and failed to record a single statistic.
Last offseason, however, Spillane was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a reserve linebacker. While he recorded just one defensive snap last season, Spillane managed to dress for 8 of 16 games and played 39 percent of special teams snaps – earning 11 tackles in that department.
Spillane is just an average athlete, but he impressed in both the preseason and on special teams last year. With a lack of depth at the linebacker position, Spillane should be able to stick around as a reserve linebacker and is a longshot to carve out a role as a sub-package player for the Steelers in 2020.
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Overall, Ulysees Gilbert seems to be the clear frontrunner of the group, but his lack of experience is more than concerning. In an offseason with limited padded practices and reduced time on the field, it’s possible that Pittsburgh could go with one of these dark horse candidates as a replacement to Mark Barron this year.