We're Back!

Hey! It’s football season again! Well, training camp, anyway, and that’s good enough to awake from our off-season slumber and shake off the bad taste left by the Pirates, moribund and lifeless as they are.

Anyway, lots to talk about, but we’ll start slow.

How about that Lawrence Timmons?!* Nice first-round draft pick, huh?

Here’s an idea: Why don’t we just move our new punter, Daniel Sepulveda, to Timmons’ slot at linebacker? Hell, Sepulveda is bigger and faster than Timmons, he’s played a little linebacker, and he’s healthy, too! What a great idea!! That way, we could reward the Irish kid, punter Mike Barr, for his persistence in showing up four straight camps and continuing to boom the ball.

Is it too early to label Timmons a bust? Of course it is, but not here!

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*As noted in the May 1 draft-analysis entry:

“Aside from being small, slow, raw and inexperienced, and having Drew Rosenhaus as his agent, what’s not to like?

“As noted in this space before the draft, we would have preferred to see the Steelers draft Purdue’s Anthony Spencer, so it will be interesting to see how their respective careers play out. For us, Timmons will always be measured against Spencer and Jarvis Moss (who went just two picks later), as well as two linebackers who went in last year’s draft: Ernie Sims, his predecessor at Florida State, who went number nine overall to Detroit and led the team in tackles his rookie year; and Camerion Wimbley, who went number 13 overall last year and has the look of a mainstay on the Browns’ defense for many years to come.

Second Round: While we are less than enthralled with the Timmons selection, we are very happy that the Steelers were able to add Lamarr Woodley, DE/LB, Michigan, with their second pick. As noted here before the draft – again – we were hoping Woodley, 6-1-1/2, 266, would end up in black and gold … but we figured he’d be gone by pick number 46 overall, so we’re thrilled the Steelers had the good sense to pick him when he was still there. He won the Lombardi Award, the Hendricks Award, and more. He’s a winner, and we expect the Steelers to use him initially in a three-point stance to RUSH THE PASSER off the left edge. Excellent pick.”

**Addendum: Before the draft, we were looking at Spencer’s incredible stats from college and thinking, “Sheesh, if this guy finished second for the Hendricks Award, who the hell finished first?” It was Woodley, of course, and we couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t rated higher. We concluded it was his flat-out 40 time. Still, the guy’s a football player and, already, media pundits are saying, “Hey, now it looks like Woodley should have been the number one pick and Timmons a number two.”

And you would’ve been happy with that.

Also, and only because we like to say, "Told ya so!", here's an excerpt from a post we published before the draft :

"We also like (a lot) Lamarr Woodley (6’2, 270), the majorly accomplished defensive end/linebacker from Michigan, but he almost certainly will be selected before the Steelers’ second-round pick."

Reality check: It’s only the first week of training camp, for crying out loud.

But still.