Timmons in perfect spot
fresher legs, let the guy roam, that’s what I say.”
Oh give me a home, and that’s also what Timmons might say. He has held several jobs since he was a No. 1 draft choice in 2007, the first under Mike Tomlin. He has been the most unsung player on their defense for quite some time, even bailing them out in 2011 over four games when James Harrison went down and they had no other good choice to put at right outside linebacker.
Now, with all the handwringing about a defense that ranked 18th in the NFL in yards allowed last season — their lowest in this century — the Steelers’ strongest position with the most depth might just be inside linebacker.
Vince Williams (buck) and Sean Spence (mack) back up Timmons and Shazier in the new era of linebackers with the Steelers. Two other recent first-round picks Jarvis Jones (2013) and rookie Bud Dupree are on the outside, where veteran Arthur Moats is No. 1 on the depth chart in his second season with the Steelers. Timmons and James Harrison will serve as the bridge to the old and new eras of linebackers.
It’s also a new era because their former position coach is now their defensive coordinator, and Keith Butler has said he wants his defensive line to become more active in making plays. That, too, is to Timmons’ liking.
“I feel like we’re going to be taking on blockers for sure,” Timmons said of his fellow linebackers. “But the thing is we have our defenisve line working more crashing down and just tearing up stuff more, so it’s going to be fun for us. And it’s going to make the running back dictate faster, so I’m looking forward to that.
“We’re in the same type of defense, but it has its own twist to it. I look forward to it, good things.”
You have to go back to find the kind of streak that Timmons ended in 2014. Back to the bad old days when the Steelers really stunk, back to the mid-1980s to find a longer stretch in which the Steelers had no linebackers in the Pro Bowl.
Timmons saved them from a similar drought when he earned his first Pro Bowl trip after last season, ending two years with no Steelers linebackers in that game. The longest stretch since the NFL merger in 1970 when they placed no linebackers on that all-star roster was three years— 19871989 seasons.
“I feel like it makes the team look good,’’ he said of his selection. “I want to be that guy to help say that. I want my other teammates to be on there, too, so we can get recognition that we are the best.”
The Steelers defense and its linebackers were among the best for a long time. Timmons and all those youngsters around him want to get them back there.