How do you. Pro Bowls do not even matter. many times it is on reputation rather than actual play. How else can you explain Levon Kirkland making it in '98 and '99 and maybe even '00? He was a great player through '97, but got too fat after that. But he still made the Pro Bowl.
Not to digress, but he was one of my favorites of that era. What a year he had in '97. It is a shame he got too heavy really after that.
I'm also not high on shazier he will make plays but to me he's exaclty like timmons will show flashes but lose more than he wins. He's just anotherbguy who's not strong enough or doesn't show it to be a every down plus player.
Jones has done absolutely nothing to earn anyone's respect, He currently is on a path of mediocrity that will get him a true "bust" Label if he doesn't turn it around, but Timmons is a quality LB and borderline star. I get the feeling people hating on him are doing so because they either hated the pick back in the day and need to justify that or because he represents a scheme and style of D in the NFL that they wish wasn't necessary.
You would be wrong about Kirkland, he had incredible speed and at his size was a great 3 down player and would be today in his prime.
Kirkland, in his prime was fast,..........very fastr. He definately could play in todays game. I wished we had a "KIRKLAND" type, our "D" would improve.
Salute the nation
Of course timmons doesn't play like Porter or Harrison. He doesn't play their ******* position. He's no HOFer, but he is a good ILB and should have been in multiple pro bowls.
Kirkland was faster than every LB we have except for than Shazier. a huge myth that players such as Dawson or Webster could not play today, they would just eat and be bigger . Have you seen how Faneca and others have absolutely shrunk after retiring or could Faneca also not play today ?
Timmons ran a 4.6, Spense a 4.7, Shazier a 4.4, Dupree a 4.6, in fact the closest to Kirkland's 40 time was Jarvis Jones, at 4.9 and not anywhere close to 275 or 280....
Jones was a swing and a miss. The Steelers in the past were not big on data analytics. I read they are warming up to the idea. At any rate, Jarvis Jones worked out like a rookie free agent.
He's just too limited athletically, and not strong, quick, big, or fast enough to make up for it.
Essentially the Steelers play Jones like a 4-3 end. He's too slow for coverage, and really is just okay as a reserve pass rusher. His value as a kick coverage person on special teams is next to zero as well.
I'd love to see Tomlin give Jarvis the Landry Jones treatment. They seem hell bent on forcing Landry to develop into a QB this preseason, giving him every opportunity.
I just don't understand the urgency that they absolutely must get their 3rd QB up to speed but their staring OLB? Nah, he'll be just fine. I'm sure he'll flip the switch come regular season.
How about you tell Jarvis he's not coming out of the game until he gets a sack. Hell, give him permission to blow off his run duties just to show he actually can get a sack on a play other than when he's unblocked or the QB holds the ball for like 7 seconds.
Dave needs to put JJ in the banner.
he and Dri.