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Simmons Out For Season!


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Starting p-burgh RG Simmons, that is...;)

Steelers RG Simmons tears ACL, out for season

SportsTicker

LATROBE, Pennsylvania (Ticker) - Pittsburgh Steelers starting  right guard Kendall Simmons suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during practice Wednesday and will miss the entire 2004 season.

The team confirmed the injury on Thursday after an MRI revealed the extent of the injury.

A first-round pick in 2002, Simmons started 30 of 32 games in his first two NFL seasons.  However, he struggled last season after he was diagnosed with hyperglycemia, a diabetes-like condition that caused him to lose considerable weight.

Tough break for Simmons & the Steelers.

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I saw that same headline at Foxsports and my heart stopped....

But hey, it couldn't happen to nicer bunch of guys....

Actually sucks for the dude :( but I'm not upset at all for Pittsburg :lol:

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Interesting tidbit (at least to me) from Vic Carruci's latest mailbag column on nfl.com:

Will the Steelers' offensive line do anything on the ground with the loss of Kendall Simmons? Last year was disastrous. I had some hope for Duce Staley until now.

--Scott, Tampa

 

Duce Staley may have trouble finding holes without Kendall Simmons.   I wish I had better news for you, but losing Simmons for the season with a torn anterior cruciate in his right knee is a blow from which the Steelers' running game might very well not recover.

Simmons was widely regarded as the one player the Steelers could least afford to lose. Besides being a major component of their running game, he also was having perhaps the best training camp of anyone on the team and opened the preseason with a strong performance against the Detroit Lions.

Without a completely healthy offensive line, it is hard to imagine the Steelers getting maximum production from Staley and the rest of their running backs. They will do the best they can by replacing Simmons with fourth-year veteran Keydrick Vincent. He is a hard worker who will make every effort to be an effective starter, but he does not seem to have enough athletic ability to make a significant impact. Another possibility is for center Jeff Hartings, a former guard, to move into Simmons' right guard spot.

When I first heard about the injury, I was mostly thinking in terms of the o-line's inability to protect Maddox last year and whether this might make for a repeat of that this season. But if it hampers their running game it's probably even more of a blow.

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