Spillane (ankle) was a limited participant in Thursday's practice.
The inside linebacker and New England's leading tackler during the regular season suffered the injury during the AFC Championship Game, had to leave that game early and hadn't practiced since then before Thursday. Spillane did say even before Thursday that he was confident he'd be good to go for the Super Bowl, and his return to practice shows that he is trending in the right direction. The former Raider recorded six stops in each of New England's first two playoff victories, games in which he played most of the snaps.