Larry Timmons Might Actually Put on the Pads

Alright, you nerds have been bellyaching all week about Larry Timmons and his balky groin, and now you'll have something new to rail against: his play. That's right, Timmons is set to play this weekend against the Redskins. Although Dale Lolley writes on SCI.com that it's not clear how much time Timmons will see. At this point, I'll take him coming out of the tunnel in something other than Duce Staley active wear. It would be a start.

In other personnel-related news, Eddie B. offers some potentially interesting nuggets:

• The first-teamers will play longer Saturday;
• Bryant McFadden will start;
• Tomlin likes what Gary Russell can do with the ball, but is interested in what he can do "when the ball is not in his hands";
• Trai Essex will get a look at backup left tackle;
• On Walter Young's chances: "He's on the brink, as are a lot of other guys. That's a good problem to have... "
• Shorter Tomlin: "I love Nate Washington ... but he needs to be better focused."

I don't have a lot of thoughts here; I've always been a B-Mac fan, and I don't imagine much drop off with him starting. I hope Russell can block (I know it was it was one part of his game that needed work), and regarding Essex, I'd just add: What the hell took so long? I mean, hasn't he been the swing guy for two years now? I know he's not exactly the hardest working dude on the team, but did anybody see Max Starks last week? Holy crap.

You know, it's too bad Walter Young didn't have his 2007 training camp in 2006. I don't know if he would've made the team last year either -- remember, Quincy Morgan got the axe in favor of the NFL's Rudy Ruettiger, Sean Morey -- but because of the numbers, there's no way he makes it coming out of camp. Young's out of practice squad eligiblity too, so hopefully he catches on with another team not in the AFC North ... or the Patriots.

(By the way, this was in yesterday's East Valley Tribune: "Others who could return kicks are receivers Bryant Johnson and Sean Morey and cornerback Rod Hood.")

*******At FanHouse, J.J. Cooper is kicking ass. Here's his o-line rundown for the first-team and the second-team. As great as this stuff is, the potential awfulness for the Steelers' line is, well, troubling as hell.

*******Randy Steele has the Question of the Day: "Other than Ryan, of course, who is your favorite beat writer who covers the Steelers?"

In case anybody cares, I was a big Wexell fan even before he knew who I was. Also, in the spirit of full disclosure -- and as I become part of the (media) problem -- I spent a little time with Ed Bouchette last week at camp and he's a solid dude. I also saw Tim Benz, who I'd describe as Mike Greenberg's whiny little brother. And in case there's any confusion, that's not good.

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear the responses to this.

*******Finally, because Randy Steele has chastised me in the past for bitching about the sorry state of the media, I'll just point this out sans commentary. Yesterday on Profootballtalk.com (I'd include a link, but since Florio doesn't believe in permalinks, I won't even bother), there were two Steelers-related mentions.

The first was about Tomlin continuing the training-camp movie day, even though he claimed to not "be big on traditions" and that he wasn't attending because "he had too much to do." That led to this from Florio:

Hmmm. Tomlin sounds like George Costanza when trying to appear busy at work by acting frustrated all the time.

We get it that Tomlin is trying to breathe some fresh air into the football team, in order to wash out the complacency that infected the franchise after a 2005 championship season. But we think he should temper the tough-guy talk, especially when it comes to dissing tradition. He's working for an organization that is steeped in tradition, in a city that reveres such concepts.

In other words, being different for the sake of being different doesn't always mean being better. Tomlin, we believe, needs to be careful not to alienate folks unnecessarily with his "new sheriff in town" mentality, especially when implying in a roundabout way that some of the old ways were foolish.

First of all, I absolutely abhor the royal we nonsense. It's weird and annoying. That aside, I have no idea what the point is here. The last sentence is grammatically correct, we believe (I detest that too), but it doesn't make any sense.

And then there was the post about the Steelers' team requirements during away games. As somebody noted on FO, after writing that the Smoking Gun revelation was harmless, PFT suggests that the Rooney's might not be super psyched that it's now in the public domain:

"We've also got a feeling that the Steelers won't be pleased that this information was disclosed, and that they'll find out which of the hotels with which they do business leaked it. And that that hotel will be stricken from the list of potential providers, permanently."

Yes, because this is much worse than sending porn over the intertubes. Or something. (Relatedly, NFL Adam, who is one of the funniest guys on the internets, has this, which is priceless.)

Okay, that's it. Game thread mañana.