At 29 years old Lawrence Timmons has been a staple for this Steelers defense since 2007. He has appeared in 142 out of the 144 games in his NFL career and started in all 16 games in 2015.

This season Timmons had 119 combined tackles, 5 sacks, 6 pass defenses, and interception, and a forced fumble. In his Steeler career his has recorded 867 combined tackles, 33 sacks, 38 pass defenses, 10 interceptions, 1 defensive touchdown, and 12 forced fumbles. Pittsburgh has one of the worst cap situations possible and Timmons is going to count $15,131,250 against it.

Timmons is still a highly productive player but maybe the Steelers cannot afford to pay him anymore. The only other player on the Steelers roster who will be more detrimental to their cap is Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers are also going to have to resign Le'Veon Bell sooner rather than later if they are going want to have a shot at bringing him back.

Timmons is way too good too just release however if they Steelers are pushed into a corner because of their cap situation anything is possible. The Steelers must also rebuild their secondary as it remains their Achilles heel, the Le'Veon Bell contract might be the thing that helps refocus the Steelers cap situation.