Larry Foote to Retire?

[Chidi29]

Bottom of the Tribune-Review report.

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Linebacker Larry Foote hinted there‘s uncertainty about his return next season. “I wouldn‘t be surprised if this is my last year,” he said. “I wouldn‘t be surprised if I did come back next year. I‘m at that age when you never know what‘s going to happen.”

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/...#axzz2FvYhnnXN

[Count Steeler]

Hmmm, that could be the first piece of the puzzle.

[BlastFurnace]

Always liked Foote.

If that is the case, best wishes to you Larry.

[Count Steeler]

Wonder if he is just feeling the effects of this season. I guess we need to wait a month or 2 before jumping to conclusions.

[Chidi29]

He's slated to become a FA so regardless, I doubt he's with us next year. Wouldn't really want him back anyway.

[Psycho Ward 86]

its about time timmons ran this defense anyways. going to be an interesting 2013 season with so many new faces (or so it seems that way)

[Steeldude]

Next year is looking better already

[steelreserve]

That would be too bad. This year was the best he played in recent memory. He fills a role for not a ton of money, which is good. Although at $3M+ when we have cap problems, I get the feeling they might not want to bring him back for that much.

[tube517]

He played solid this year but I think it's time to move on. I think Keisel and Hampton should make way for the young guys.

[86WARD]

He played well at times and was a liability at others.

[GBMelBlount]

Larry Foote played as well as you can expect him to this year.

I for one am glad he was on our team.

[zulater]

I read into that that he doesn't expect to be invited back. And that if the Stelers offer him a contract he'd be back.

Which makes him a smart and realistic man.

Personally I don't get all the Foote hate? While he's certainly not elite he's not a liability by any means either. He made almost as many splash plays through the season as any Steelers defender. If Larry Foote's your worst starter on defense# you really don't have much to complain about.

* he wasn't, Ziggy, Casey, and whoever lined up at strong safety the first 14 games of the season would be my candidate for that distinction.

[SteelerFanInStl]

I wouldn't mind seeing him back next year as a backup since we have very little depth at ILBer. Hopefully Spence will come back healthy and can be a starter. We need a player with that kind of speed. Foote is a big liability in pass coverage.

[zulater]

I wouldn't mind seeing him back next year as a backup since we have very little depth at ILBer. Hopefully Spence will come back healthy and can be a starter. We need a player with that kind of speed. Foote is a big liability in pass coverage.

Spence tore that knee up so bad who knows what to expect from him this year?

[SteelerFanInStl]

Spence tore that knee up so bad who knows what to expect from him this year?

I know, big question mark and probably too much to expect for him to be able to start. If he can't, we need to look at getting a starter in FA or early in the draft.

[Chidi29]

Spence tore that knee up so bad who knows what to expect from him this year?

Agreed. Tough for a guy that wouldn't have taken a snap in a about a year to be expected to come in right away and run with the starters.

Always wished that Brandon Johnson would have seen some playing time on defense but he's obviously a stop-gap and not a long-term fix.

[BlastFurnace]

I read into that that he doesn't expect to be invited back. And that if the Stelers offer him a contract he'd be back.

Which makes him a smart and realistic man.

Personally I don't get all the Foote hate? While he's certainly not elite he's not a liability by any means either. He made almost as many splash plays through the season as any Steelers defender. If Larry Foote's your worst starter on defense# you really don't have much to complain about.

* he wasn't, Ziggy, Casey, and whoever lined up at strong safety the first 14 games of the season would be my candidate for that distinction.

I agree. He certainly contributed more than Woodley this year.

[zulater]

I agree. He certainly contributed more than Woodley this year.

Agreed.

Woodley looked overweight and slow all season.

Not sure if that hamstring problem affected his conditioning? But whatever the problem is it had better be addressed this offseason. The guy eats up a lot of cap space for a 4 sack season.

[katmandu]

I wouldn't mind seeing him back next year as a backup since we have very little depth at ILBer. Hopefully Spence will come back healthy and can be a starter. We need a player with that kind of speed. Foote is a big liability in pass coverage.

I think Larry served us very well this year.

We're going to have a lot of inexperienced young dudes in the LB corp next year. Would be nice to have Larry back to give some experienced support.

[Chidi29]

I thought Foote struggled, especially the second half of the year. Not an athlete and can't drop effectively into coverage and constantly got washed out vs the run.

[zulater]

I think Foote gets as much out of his God given ability as anyone on this team.

[salamander]

Best of luck to Larry with whatever he decides to do.

[zulater]

I thought Foote struggled, especially the second half of the year. Not an athlete and can't drop effectively into coverage and constantly got washed out vs the run.

He was up and down in his play. I think it's more to do with him being undersized than anything. Certain teams just overwhelm him at the point of attack at times. But the guy's smart and even in his bad games he'll slip through and make a sack or a tackle for a loss or disrupt the play in some way at a key moment.

At the vet minimum or just above I'd like to see foote stay on as a back-up.

[Dwinsgames]

I think Foote gets as much out of his God given ability as anyone on this team.

true that ..........


Foote is more important to this team than most are willing to admit .....

if they fail to get a guy Like T'eo or make a late round draft pick trade to the Raiders for a McClain we will in fact miss Foote and miss him a lot IMO .... whether people admit it or not will be quite another story

[Seven]

I don't think Foote played well at all this season. He made tackles when they came to him, sure, but too many times he abandoned his gap or was caught cheating in coverage. That said, I wish him the best of luck wherever he is next year and thank him for his contributions to the Steelers if he isn't back.

[Count Steeler]

We NEED a good draft next year. We need a total of 10 decent O Linemen, you know with injuries and all. We need a total of 7 or 8 LBers and we are very weak here in depth. We need more help in the secondary, more towards Safety than Corner, but we need depth as well. We NEED a backup QB. We should delay our visit from Santa until April.

Foote would be a nice player to keep around at the right price. He would bring some stability to the young guns that would be coming in, hopefully.

[zulater]

We NEED a good draft next year. We need a total of 10 decent O Linemen, you know with injuries and all. We need a total of 7 or 8 LBers and we are very weak here in depth. We need more help in the secondary, more towards Safety than Corner, but we need depth as well. We NEED a backup QB. We should delay our visit from Santa until April.

Foote would be a nice player to keep around at the right price. He would bring some stability to the young guns that would be coming in, hopefully.

I think we could use like 60 of them the way they go down on this team!

[steeldawg]

I thought Foote struggled, especially the second half of the year. Not an athlete and can't drop effectively into coverage and constantly got washed out vs the run.

I saw the same thing also he was caught out of position alot.

[steelreserve]

Agreed.

Woodley looked overweight and slow all season.

Not sure if that hamstring problem affected his conditioning? But whatever the problem is it had better be addressed this offseason. The guy eats up a lot of cap space for a 4 sack season.

4 sacks ... and don't forget the whopping 24 tackles in 12 games. Not a whole lot of production for a contract that pays $10M a year on average. Half a million dollars per tackle. Good job.

[steelerdude15]

He played well at times and was a liability at others.

Probably the best way to put it. With that being said, if he does decide to retire, I wish him luck in life.