The Steelers fifth round pick in the 2004 draft, Nathaniel Adibi, didn't make it out of the preseason -- in fact he didn't even make it to the final cut that reduces the roster to 53 players (he and five other players were released yesterday to reduce the rosters to 71).
Well things didn't get any better for the Adibi family becaue Nathaniel's younger brother Xavier, a redshirt freshman at Virgina Tech, had surgery to re-attach the tendon in his right biceps muscle to the humerus bone. The younger Adibi will be out for all of 2004 but the good news is that he should be ready to go in 2005.
I'm not sure if that's the case with Nataniel. All throughout training camp his was one name you didn't here mentioned too often. I just assumed, much like Alonzo Jackson last year, that Adibi was making the transition from DE to OLB much in the same way that Jason Gildon and Joey Porter did several years ago.
I'm always a little hesitant to give up so quickly on a player, because (a) one training camp might not give coaches a true indication of a players' talent, and (b) it makes you wonder what the scouting department saw leading up to the draft that they didn't see in the last two months. Maybe he'll clear waivers and land on the practice squad just ensure that he's not the next Hank Fraley.
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