Monday is not a good day for a few players drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007.
In addition to now knowing that Steelers will release cornerback William Gay, the team’s second of two fifth-round draft picks in 2007, it’s now being reported that the Miami Dolphins have released linebacker Lawrence Timmons, Pittsburgh’s first-round draft pick in 2007.
The release of Timmons by the Dolphins is not a bit surprising. Timmons, who will turn 32 in May, was due a base salary of $5.45 million in 2018 after signing a two year, $12 million contract, of which $11 million was reportedly fully guaranteed, with the Dolphins last year at this time.
Timmons registered 84 total tackles in the 14 games that he played for the Dolphins in 2017. He did, however, miss one game last season as a result of him going AWOL from the team’s hotel in Los Angeles the morning of a game and was ultimately tracked down at the airport getting ready to board a flight to Pennsylvania to go see family. He was suspended by the Dolphins for his actions and that resulted in him missing another game before finally being reinstated.
Speculation will now ramp up about Timmons’ future. While him potentially re-signing with the Steelers is an obvious connection, you have to wonder if that will ultimately happen because of the way his play has dropped off over the last few years. He’s no longer an every-down inside linebacker and the Steelers might not want to bring him back even for the veteran minimum because of that.
According to Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network, Timmons has to sort some things out with Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin before a discussion about bringing him back even take place.
