Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons was back home in Florence, South Carolina this past weekend for a family reunion and to throw out the first pitch for the Florence minor league baseball game on Saturday.
Timmons sat down with Lou Bezjak of SC Now for an interview to talk about a wide range of topics that included his thoughts on the new CBA, the week one match-up against the Denver Broncos and the Steelers upcoming training camp among other topics.
During the interview Timmons was asked who he considered the toughest quarterback to prepare for. “I would have to say Aaron Rodgers,” said Timmons. “He can beat you on his feet and is one of the best passers in the game.”
In regard to facing Peyton Manning in the week one game against the Broncos this upcoming season, and if he was looking forward to it, Timmons said, “Peyton is coming back off of his injury and is one of the best quarterbacks in the league. It’s going to be a five-star matchup and one of those games everyone is going to be excited to watch and will be fun to play in.”
Timmons also told Bezjak that he is ready to go for training camp, as the Steelers will report to Latrobe on July 25th. He confirmed that he has been training down in South Florida, reportedly at Pete Bommarito Performance Systems, along with teammates Antonio Brown and Jonathan Dwyer, and that he feels like his conditioning is in great shape.
Timmons, who signed a six-year, $50 million contract, last offseason during training camp, is looking for a bounce back season in 2012 after seeing his tackle stats drop from 135 in 2010, down to 93 last season. That lack of productivity last year for the Steelers former first round draft pick mostly stemmed from him having to play nearly a third of his defensive snaps at outside linebacker in place of the injured James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley.
Timmons seems ready to go though and even has put the overtime loss in the AFC Wild Card game against the Broncos behind him as well. “It is what it is. It’s last year,” said Timmons in regard to the way the 2011 season ended so abruptly. “That’s how I go about it and I just want to prepare for the season, have a good preseason and take it into the season.”
