It might be hard to tell, but apparently there is less of Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons this year.
Timmons told the media on Saturday that he now weighs 242 pounds after playing last year at 250.
When Timmons entered the league in 2007 as a first round draft pick, he reportedly weighed 234 pounds, which just so happens to be three pounds less than his new counterpart inside, rookie first round draft pick Ryan Shazier, weighed at the 2014 NFL Combine.
With Shazier now on board, Timmons is moving over to the buck position and the two together should result in the fastest pair of inside linebackers that the Steelers have had in eons.
While Timmons looked every bit of 250 pounds last season, in my opinion, he carried it well and he looked just as fast as he ever has. Now that he’s dropped a few pounds, he should be even lighter on his feet.
Buck linebackers don’t have to be big. In fact, Timmons’ predecessors at the position, Larry Foote and James Farrior, both weighed less than 240 pounds in their later years. Linebackers coach Keith Butler even weighed in on the weight topic during the draft when asked if he thought Shazier needed to put on some weight.
“I don’t know if he’s going to be 235,” said Butler of Shazier. “We’ll see. I don’t know if he’s that much. Look, Potsie [James Farrior] played at 225, 230 his last two years in the league and he was a Pro Bowl guy. One year I thought he should have been the NFL Defensive Player of the Year and he was 230.”
Butler didn’t stop there on the weight topic.
“I want him to move,” said Butler of the Ohio State product. “I don’t want him to get so big that he can’t move. And a lot of times young linebackers get in their head that, I got to weigh 250 or 260, or something, and that’s bull crap to me. To me, can they move and can they be where they need to be when they need to be there, and this guy can do that.”
There’s no doubt that Shazier can move and the same goes for Timmons. As long as the front three do their jobs in keeping the inside linebackers covered up and the duo can be where they need to be, their weight won’t be an issue.
