FanHouse James Farrior

LATROBE, Pa. -- Here at Steelers training camp, there's always a class in session. Practice ends, but not all at once. As some players hop on golf carts and head back to the dorms on the campus of St. Vincent College, others stay to ask and answer questions. Ziggy Hood, a rookie defensive lineman out of Missouri, picks the brain of 11-year veteran Aaron Smith. Rookie cornerback Keenan Lewis tails Ike Taylor around, looking to pick up pointers.

"There's just so much knowledge here," Lewis said. "These guys that have been here a long time, they're just so valuable for a new guy coming in."

When Steelers rookie Jack Lambert stepped into the league in 1974 as a 208 pound middle linebacker, the thought was he was too small to do the job. He quickly proved everyone wrong.

But that was back in the days when a lot of linemen weighed 240-260 pounds and they weren't allowed to use their hands. It's even more baffling to explain how James Farrior managed to succeed as an inside linebacker last year despite weighing as little as 218 pounds. That's just 10 more pounds than safety Troy Polamalu.

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet the...
Team with more Super Bowl titles than any other franchise in existence. Fresh off of their sixth Super Bowl title, the Steelers return in 2009 with a solid shot at a repeat performance. The stellar defense is still around and the main keys to the Pittsburgh offense are back and healthy.

While the NFL version of the Steelers is a force to be reckoned with, the Steelers, as fantasy assets, are just average.

There's a scene in an old Simpsons episode (the exact episode escapes me) where Otto the bus driver is attending a concert, sitting amongst a sea of spectators who are all standing up, screaming, and enjoying themselves. Otto, annoyed by his line of vision being obstructed by his fellow concert-goers, screamed for everyone else to "sit down, sit down, you're ruining it for the rest of us."

A similar scene played out high atop section E-16 of Mellon Arena on Tuesday night, nearly leading to a fight between two women as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings frantically played the final six minutes of the third period of Game 3.

According to Pro Football Talk, citing a league source, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be cutting inside linebacker Larry Foote in a move that will reportedly save them nearly $3 million against the salary cap. Foote has been a regular starter since the 2003 season after being selected by Pittsburgh in the fourth round of the 2002 draft, and has been the definition of "solid." There's nothing flashy about his game, but he always manages to get the job done.

His exit will open the door for 2007 first-round draft pick Lawrence Timmons to start next to James Farrior, in a switch that will manage to make the best defense in the NFL more athletic and explosive.

A decade ago, a Steelers inside linebacker opted to leave Pittsburgh, and a year later ended up in Detroit -- Earl Holmes was never heard from again. Could history be about to repeat itself?

Larry Foote, a starter with the Steelers for three seasons, supposedly would happily leave Pittsburgh to come back home to play for the Lions. A friend of Foote's told the Detroit Free Press that Foote is hoping to come back to Detroit before too long, even if that means playing for the worst franchise in pro sports.

Want to get a cheat sheet for the Super Bowl, here are a couple of plays to watch for on Sunday.

Blocking Steelers outside linebackers James Harrison or LaMarr Woodley is a tough job for any offensive tackle, but thanks to a new blitz that Dick LeBeau has dreamed up, sometimes a tackle has to worry about both of them at the same time.

LeBeau is a defensive genius who is always drawing up new looks in an attempt to spread confusion among offensive linemen. And nothing is more confusing than trying to figure out the Steelers outside linebacker overload as the play clock runs down.

Every time you rewatch the Steelers-Ravens games from earlier this year, it's hard to not get even more excited about Act III.

You have the league's two best defenses facing off, and two offenses that will be trying to prove that they aren't over their head. You'll watch James Harrison try to terrorize Joe Flacco again, while Ed Reed will try to once again turn a game around with an interception.

And after charting every Ravens' offensive play from both games, it's clear that Baltimore is facing an uphill battle. For all the talk about Flacco's amazing success as a rookie, the Ravens finished 28th in the NFL in passing yardage this season, and while most teams have two or three significant receiving threats, Baltimore had only one receiver with more than 700 yards receiving.

But in rewatching the first two Steelers-Ravens games, there are some things Baltimore can take advantage of.

The AFC and NFC Pro Bowlers were announced a short while ago, and why make some pointless comment you are sure not to laugh at when we can just give you the rosters instead? Here goes.

After a very quiet August on the signing front, the Steelers surprised most everyone by announcing that James Farrior will be sticking around Pittsburgh through 2012 or his retirement speech (which will more likely come before 2012).

Keeping Farrior in black and gold keeps everyone happy. Farrior clearly wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, the Steelers keep one of the defense's leaders, and the rest of the team gets to see an example of the team taking care of one of its own. And the new deal isn't that expensive--five years, $18.2 million with a $5 million signing bonus. His cap hit will be $2.8 million this year, bumping up to a little under $4 million in each of the next two years. Since he was already slated to have a $4.5 million hit for this year, the Steelers will actually get nearly $2 million in cap savings this year.

But there is one problem--Pittsburgh now has more linebackers than it has spots. James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley are set at outside linebacker (Harrison's signed at a bargain rate through 2009 with Woodley signed through 2010). At inside linebacker, the Steelers now have Farrior (at roughly $3.75 million per year), Larry Foote (through 2010 at roughly $2.75 million per year) and Lawrence Timmons (signed through 2011 at roughly $3 million per year if he hits his incentives). That's $9.5 million per year set aside to what is traditionally the less important roles in the Steelers 3-4 defense.