In the immediate aftermath of making Timmons the 15th overall selection of this draft, Coach Mike Tomlin was asked to compare him to an NFL linebacker. Reluctantly, Tomlin said Derrick Brooks, and he said it reluctantly because Brooks is a multiple All-Pro who was a weapon on the defense Tampa Bay used to win Super Bowl XXXVII; Brooks actually returned an interception 44 yards for a touchdown in that 48-21 win over the Oakland Raiders.
No coach wants to hang that kind of pressure on a guy who won't be 21 years old until May 14, but if Timmons is going to become a Pro Bowl player himself and develop into a defensive weapon for the Steelers, he's going to do it playing a style similar to Brooks'.
In other words, Timmons isn't Kevin Greene or Jason Gildon. He isn't a guy who can bang with 300-pound offensive tackles all afternoon and wear them down. He's not going to be attacking the quarterback every time the opposition attempts a pass. His contributions won't be reflected only by the number of sacks he records.
"His football character is what we seek. He is a guy who loves the game," said Tomlin. "He is very versatile. His skill set defies scheme, which is one of the things we have talked about. He is an outside linebacker, who is capable of playing off the line of scrimmage. He is capable of playing on the tight end. He has pass rush capabilities, but he also has the R-H factor. He is a runner and hitter."
Derrick Brooks. Greg Lloyd, who was the original middle linebacker in the Steelers dime defense when it was invented in 1992, is another example of an outside linebacker who had pass-rush capabilities but also could play off the line of scrimmage. And Lloyd was someone who definitely had the R-H factor.
"Lawrence is a good football player and he has exceptional burst to the ball and he arrives there in an angry mood. He will definitely light you up," said linebackers coach Keith Butler. "We think he can play inside or outside. We always thought he was flexible as far as putting him on the line, taking him off the line or walking him out and doing these things that we sometimes ask our outside linebackers to do. He is athletic enough to be either inside or outside.
"I'm going to try to teach him both the inside and the outside linebacker positions. This is going to be tough for him, but he can handle it mentally."
In terms of assignments, Timmons more often figures to be asked to do things that James Farrior does, rather than the things Clark Haggans does, or the things Joey Porter was asked to do. For example, with Timmons, the Steelers could line him up next to Troy Polamalu and make the quarterback guess who is blitzing and who is covering, because both players can do both.
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Cowher was driving very conservatively, and it was easy to predict how he was planning on getting to the stadium.
It seemed as if he was driving not to crash and relying on his tires to pound their way down the asphalt about 3 yards at a time.
Obviously this is a great day for me. We got two good football players, the outside linebacker,(Timmons) having the ability to play inside or outside. LaMarr Woodley is going to help us out quite a bit. We have two good outside linebackers here already. LaMarr is depth, this particular year, in addition to helping us with the pass rush on third downs. He'll take time with the transition, moving from defensive end to outside linebacker, but he has played outside linebacker before. Early in his career at Michigan he stood up. These last couple years he has played the defensive end position, but we feel good about it. I feel good about both of these guys.
Does this change anything with 1st round pick Lawrence Timmons?
One of the main reasons that we took Lawrence, number one, he is a good football player and he has exceptional burst to the ball and he arrives with an angry mood. He will definitely light you up. We think he can play inside or outside. We always thought he was flexible as far as putting him on the line, taking him off the line or walking him out and doing these things that we sometimes ask our outside linebackers to do. He is athletic enough to be either inside or outside. Will it change? We will have to wait and see once we get into training camp. I'm going to try to teach him both the inside and the outside linebacker positions. This is going to be tough for him, but he can handle it mentally. Lawrence can handle it mentally. With LaMarr, we are going to put him at outside and keep him at outside. It is enough transition for him to stand up and recognize formations and do the stuff that we ask our outside linebackers to do in this defense.
Will you make Woodley an outside linebacker in the 3-4 or 4-3 defense?
We are sticking with the 3-4. We are going to play the 3-4 defense.
Will he play special teams?
Yes, both of these guys will. Both of them will help us quite a bit on special teams.
If you wanted to play a little 4-3, would Woodley play outside?
Our guys do that anyways, if you look at the third downs from the last few years, where we have put them in the three-point stance. Both Clark (Haggans) and Joey (Porter) played out of the three-point stance quite a bit last year. Woodley can put his hand on the ground; he has done it at Michigan. Again, at this point, we have no plans of going to the 4-3. I know everybody in here keeps talking about us going to a 4-3, but I haven't seen it yet. Hopefully they will tell the coaches before they tell y'all. We haven't heard about that yet.
This is more of the classic "tweener" that you have drafted in the past and I am more comfortable with this pick. Timmons is more of a square-peg in a round hole kind of guy. Did the selection of Timmons force you to make this pick?
No, it didn't. Actually, it gave us a little more flexibility. To be honest with you, it gave us freedom to go inside or outside with this next pick. We felt like Lawrence could play inside or outside. When you play outside linebacker in our sub-package, which would remain to be seen if he will do that, we felt like on third down, if we had Lawrence in there, we could still have a three-man line and move him around a little bit, much like we did Joey last year.
LaMarr won't be your right outside pass rusher, then?
We plan on playing LaMarr on the left side right now because he's a bigger guy, with the option of playing both sides because he played both sides in college. The thing I think we need to have is somebody that we can bring in on third down to spell Clark [Haggans] and James Harrison. I'm not going to be disloyal to the guys we've got here because they are both very good football players. They are going to be starters for us this year – Clark and James. These two guys are going to help us quite a bit. If you look at the history of this defense, it has been a rare occasion when a linebacker started as a rookie. Mainly because this defense is a little complex, more than they are used to in college.
So it's going to take some transition time for them to learn it and feel comfortable in it. And what I mean by feeling comfortable in it, that they will play fast. If you've got a linebacker thinking too much on the field, then he's not playing fast. And these two guys, probably the best thing they do is they are both very aggressive and they both play fast. The worst thing I could do to them as a coach is to make them slow down. And I don't want to do that.
Did you watch any tape of him from his sophomore year when he was a stand-up outside linebacker?
Yes I did. I watched some [tape] as a junior also. He had about 15 plays or 16 plays against Minnesota. I watched him there, too.
I was convinced that Woodley could play outside linebacker more so by his workout when we went to work him out at Michigan this spring. I wasn't sure about it because I hadn't seen him do it since he was a junior. We went and watched him do it. He stood up and did the linebacker drills, as well as they defensive line drills, and did well at them. He impressed me.
When he played at Michigan as a stand-up outside linebacker, did he just go forward?
No, he did not. He did a lot of the things that we do. Michigan's defense is very similar to ours. Over the years, the Michigan defensive coaches have come down here and gotten film from us and we've linked on all that stuff. So they have a lot of their – their defensive package is what we do. We're counting on that particular part of it for the transition of LaMarr.
You mentioned spelling Clark and James. Is that a philosophical shift? It seems like [Joey] Porter and [Clark] Haggans never really came off the field.
Yes, it's something that Coach LeBeau and I and Coach Tomlin think will benefit both those guys, especially late in the game, and probably help us in terms of the number of sacks. I think, and Coach LeBeau has probably talked about this already, if we can put a little bit more pressure on the quarterback with a strict four-man rush, it's going to help our secondary quite a bit.
Is part of the reason for doing that the fact that three of these four linebackers plan to play a lot on special teams?
Well, you'd have to talk to Mike about that, but I think Mike's philosophy on that is that special teams are the third phase of our team. It carries just as much importance as offense and defense. And that's just not empty words to Mike.
James Harrison is a vital contributor on our special teams so we want to keep him in that mold. But obviously, when you're a starter, you can't have him in that mold quite a bit. James will continue to play special teams, as will Clark, as will these two young guys. And they will help our special teams quite a bit as they learn the defense.
Do you see [Brett] Keisel doing a little more of that? He's been messing around at linebacker quite a bit.
Yeah. Brett has always been kind of our emergency outside linebacker if we lost too many in a game, or somebody got hurt or something like that. He's always had to learn the outside linebacker position. So he has a limited knowledge of our defense in terms of the outside linebacker. How much he'll play on special teams is going to be up to the special teams coach and [to] Mike.
Do you see him playing more outside linebacker in a non-emergency?
We're going to wait and let you see on that one. We have some thoughts about that. Coach Lebeau has come up with some stuff that is very interesting and we'll see how it does on the field.
Did it matter what you got today whether you use these packages?
It matters to me what we got today, that's for sure.
Concerning Keisel?
Concerning Keisel? Keisel will keep the same role in this defense. You probably need to speak to Coach LeBeau. I don't want to step on his toes. Coach LeBeau sees Brett as a guy that we can use in those terms, much like Baltimore has done. They move a lot of guys around and have some different guys rushing [from] different areas. We're going to look at [that]. This is a copycat league. You look at what has been successful in this league. Of course, if it's been successful, and you have the people to do it, then why not do it?
I think Keisel has been chomping at the bit at this. He's been more anxious about it than you have.
I know it. Brett obviously has been politicking with me and Coach LeBeau. We'll see what happens
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Cowher was driving very conservatively, and it was easy to predict how he was planning on getting to the stadium.
It seemed as if he was driving not to crash and relying on his tires to pound their way down the asphalt about 3 yards at a time.
To all that post here, I apologize for letting myself become a total ******* in this thread and on this board. I am a devoted Steelers fan and I let harmless banter between myself and SmackDR spin way out of control. From this point forward, when I post on this board, I will be on my best behavior.
SmackDR, let's end this right here. You and I have made ourselves look like inmature children on this board and in this thread in particular. Let's put this behind us and move forward. This is my favorite website and I do not want to be banned.
To my fellow Steeler fans, SmackDR, and most recently MR AK, please except my apology. Thank you.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(The Bitter Truth @ May 1st ) [snapback]1989551[/snapback]</div>
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You don't like anything black and gold. But I agree, sort of.
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naah, i like polamalu, but that's beside the point. having watched both of these players through college, i can honestly say timmons doesn't remind me of brooks at all.
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