What if Spence or Williams beat out Shazier?

[feltdizz]

Timmons also had a deep and experienced group of LBs in front of him and Jones was handed the starting job that he failed to keep. Keep working those facts.

both were monsters on ST's... I'm actually more excited about JJ because he had more reps on D his first year.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

I am more worried about "what if none of these guys can play" than "what if all of these players become studs"

[papillon]

I am more worried about "what if none of these guys can play" than "what if all of these players become studs"

Only Steeler fans would worry about too many players being good and what to do, I hope to Hades they have that problem next year, because Worilds records 13 sacks75 tackles, 4FF, 2INTs and 20 TFL, Jones records 9 sacks, 3 FF and 5 TFL, Timmons checks in with 120 tackles, 10 sacks, 2 INTs, 4 FFs and 10 TFL and Spence records 60 tackles, 7 PD, 2 FF and 5 TFL and because of all that Shazier records 40 tackles on STs.
How effing awesome would that be?
Pappy

[NJ-STEELER]

Timmons also had a deep and experienced group of LBs in front of him and Jones was handed the starting job that he failed to keep. Keep working those facts.

huh?

JJ had a young, mid 2nd round pick in front of him

timmons had larry (everyone wants to replace me) foote in front of him

[sick beats]

Shazier will START inside next to Timmons. Bank on it. However, drafting Shazier gives the Steelers some insurance. Should Worilds walk next year Timmons COULD slide outside and Shazier and Williams/Spence can play inside.

Timmons could slide outside? He has never been any good at OLB. That is why they were forced to move him inside to begin with. What has changed since? Our OLBs MUST get pressure on the QB coming from the edge. LT is not an edge rusher.

[steel50]

How about Shazier taking TROY's spot in the DIME at ILB next year and let TROY roam free again?

I love this idea

[Shoe]

You don't get it do you? Let me break it down for you...

1) Let's say Worilds is signed long term.
2) Let's say that Spence gets the start and plays great. He plays good enough to where he's not going to lose his starting job.
3) JJ shows us why he was a 1st round pick
4) Timmons continues his solid play

Where does that leave Shazier? You don't want your first rounder to sit the bench so I'm asking what happens in a scenario that isn't far fetched.

He might not start this year. Heck, he could take a few years to develop like Timmons did. If he does develop and takes a couple years, that happens to be when Timmons will be 30 (2 yrs) and counting around 11.5 million against the cap.

If the scenario above plays out, Timmons would be the odd man out because of his age and his cap value. Thats not "hating"... that's using common sense.

The Spence part is pretty far-fetched.

The word miracle gets thrown around a lot, but I think it would be damn near miraculous for Spence to do what you are saying.

[pfelix73]

I love this idea

From what Coach Butler said in his interview, this is exactly what will happen. You all need to visit steelers.com and watch all of the interviews.. Here is a transcript of some of Butler's PC from today:

"
2^nd part How high did you jump with Shazzier available in the first round?
I like him a lot. You try to fit a need and we thought with him we couldn’t pass him up when he was there. There were a lot of guys we liked around that area but all those guys got drafted. So when he came and he had that type of speed, you can’t pass something like that up. He’s going to make us immediately faster on defense, which is going to help. It looks like to me we are going to have three guys sub (4.4) on defense right now. I’m talking about [URL="http://www.steelers.com/team/roster/shamarko-thomas/5cb3b5e6-1b08-4371-8316-0bf10dd8a3a1/"]Shamarko Thomas[/URL] and the kid we got from Carolina and this kid. Sub (4.4) for a linebacker is moving.

Re: Carnell said he would take him if you didn’t like him:
Carnell was a linebacker in college too and he moved back, but I’m not in favor of doing that.

Re: Shazzier Similar size to Timmons:
No Lawrence is bigger than him. I want him to move. I don’t want him to get so big that he can’t move. A lot of times young linebackers get in their head, I have to weigh 250 or I have to weigh 260, that’s bull crap to me. Pardon my language folks but to me, can they move? Can they get where they need to be when they need to be there? This guy can do that. This guy can make mistakes. Shazzier can make mistakes and has make-up speed to get back into position and make plays.
Do you like [URL="http://www.steelers.com/team/roster/ryan-shazier/7e3347f2-0be9-4413-bca3-b929f03e18a3/"]Ryan Shazier[/URL] playing around 235-240 pounds?
I don’t know if he’s going to be 235, but we’ll see. I don’t know if he’s that much now, but James Farrior played at 225-230 his last few years in the league and he was a Pro Bowl guy. One year I thought he should have been NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and he played at 230. Larry Foote played at 230-235 and Lawrence (Timmons) is the biggest guy we’ve had inside in recent years. With the defense we play, we kind of cover them up and let them run a little bit. What’s happening today is there are multiple receiver personnel groups, like 60-65% of the time that’s the case. It’s not 50-50 anymore, but trending more towards that. This guy fits the part of the game that is starting to put faster people on the field. We’re going to try and match them.

Has speed been something that has been lacking on defense the past couple of years?
Larry Foote got hurt last year so we moved Lawrence inside to take Larry’s position when we played our sub-package. Then we would move [URL="http://www.steelers.com/team/roster/troy-polamalu/1b1010ec-73b6-414d-88ee-72dbd9b48597/"]Troy Polamalu[/URL] down to linebacker, and Troy had done this before. We were playing Troy on second-down in that situation too. I think this will take a little bit of pressure off of him and maybe on third-down we’ll have a new package. We have a few ideas.

Will Timmons play the Buck position?
Probably. That’s probably the best move to make right now. It probably will be easier for him as well. Normally if you think about that position in our defense, linebacker wise, the buck position is the one that makes most of the plays. Historically that’s been the case even before I was here. We’ll see what happens with that.

What can a guy like Joey Porter do for [URL="http://www.steelers.com/team/roster/jarvis-jones/92ceebdf-6088-4872-abf0-69a36014c8d2/"]Jarvis Jones[/URL]?
I think he can help him immensely. He and Jarvis are probably the same guy. Their style of play, Jarvis might be a little different than Joey, but not much. Joey has always had an attitude when he played and we need some of that. I’ve already told the story of him going out to the bus to try to pull everybody off the bus. I want that type of attitude in that room. Joey, that’s the way he played. A lot of people say that he was a loud mouth and maybe he was but he backed that mess up. If you don’t back it up, it’s hollow. He was a good player for us not only when he was young, but when he got older too. I think he has a passion for coaching. He loves it. He loves to be on the field working with those guys. He has a really good knowledge base to do it."

[Ernie]

The Spence part is pretty far-fetched.

The word miracle gets thrown around a lot, but I think it would be damn near miraculous for Spence to do what you are saying.

I'm not going to bet against Spence at this point. I see Butler was singing Spence's praises today. I think he even used the word "Miraculous" to describe Spence's progress...

[BradshawsHairdresser]

I am more worried about "what if none of these guys can play" than "what if all of these players become studs"

$$$$$
If they all become studs, that's a great problem to have...

[BradshawsHairdresser]

pfelix--
Thanks for posting the Butler interview. I like what I read there. Encouraging information.

[Shoe]

Butler made a point about the attitude in the LB room. I couldn't agree more. It is why I'm so happy about Zumwalt, and why I wanted Trent Murphy somewhere in the draft. (In hindsight, this worked much better.) Zumwalt is a competitive, aggressive SOB. I'm not saying he is "the next Jack Lambert", all I'm saying is that he can bring that crazed attitude that I think is necessary on a "great" defense.

[Slapstick]

BTW, Shazier can be a backup LS...

[NJ-STEELER]

The Spence part is pretty far-fetched.

The word miracle gets thrown around a lot, but I think it would be damn near miraculous for Spence to do what you are saying.

butler mentioned it would be a miracle 2 years ago if he came back.

and he stop a wee bit short of saying he was fully back but he likes the way he's moving around. of course, they need to see how it holds up physically once contact starts

[hawaiiansteel]

Coach Optimistic About Spence

By Ed Bouchette Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Last year during the draft, Steelers linebackers coach Keith Butler said it would be a miracle if injured Sean Spence ever played football again. He added he was rooting for him.

Today, Butler said that miracle may be in the making.

“It is getting really close to being miraculous. He looks real good to me.”

Spence, the team’s third-round draft pick in 2012, sustained a devastating knee injury in the final preseason game as a rookie. The most serious damage was to his peroneal nerve, which needed to regenerate. He spent his first season on injured reserve and last season on the physically unable to perform list.

“We will see how the knee holds up when he starts higgint and things like that,’’ Butler said. “Right now I’m real encouraged by the way he looks. He is such an exceptional young man and you hope that it works out for him and I think it will.’’

[URL]http://sportsblogs.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers-steelers-blog/2014/05/10/Reaching-for-Needs/stories/201405100003[/URL]