According to Tony Pauline of DraftInsider.net, “at least a dozen” NFL teams have already expressed a lot of interest in Steelers free agent OLB Jason Worilds.
- Pauline also mentions what many have been saying for a few months now that the Steelers could have a hard time retaining Worilds due to LaMarr Woodley‘s contract.
- Pauline adds that Woodley’s deal will make it “very difficult if not impossible” to keep Worilds.
Pittsburgh has Woodley under contract for $8 million next season to go along with a cap hit of $13.59 million. Releasing him this offseason would free up $25.5 million in cap space over the next three years, according to Bouchette.
Of course, the Steelers could always approach Woodley about a pay cut, but it’s hard to say that he would even be willing to broach the topic.
Worilds, 25, is likely to be at the top of the Steelers priorities list this offseason now that he’s coming off of a solid year in 2013. Worilds has said that he has no intention of taking a back seat in the coming years, so the Steelers would not only need to pay him a market value contract, but also assure him that he will see plenty of playing time moving forward.
Worilds produced 63 tackles, eight sacks and two forced fumbles this season and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 12 3-4 outside linebacker in the league.
We have Worilds listed as the No. 10 player in our Top 50 Free Agents list.
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Pay attention here folks. Worilds has not been injury prone. Woodley has been.
The reasons he hasn’t been on the field until this year are 1. He has been behind Woodley who we have been paying a ton of money to. 2. Almost NO player in Lebeau’s defense starts their first few seasons. Worilds had a solid season this year and would stay on the field alot more than Woodley. Woodley has missed almost a half season every year for at least the last three. Also, if you read NFL.com Colbert addressed this by saying that they are looking to keep both Worilds and Woodley.
LMFNO I doubt any of these posters watch the STEELERS? Worilds injury prone? He missed 7 games in 4 years? 1 sack wonder? 18 sacks in 4 years with the first 3 years seeing limited time?
How come I’ve never heard of draft insider?
Tony Pauline has worked for SI.com in the past while maintaining the DraftInsider.net website. He has been around for awhile and was a former NFL scout before that. You can look him up to verify if you’d like.
Hey, some dumb ass GM or owner will overpay for him, they always do. I’m glad the Steelers will not. I think Mike Tomlin should have tried to gotten the guy in before last season so they could have at least seen what they had in the guy. Of course it’s hard to do when Worilds has been injury prone the previous three season. Looks like Worilds could be Gone.
just like some genius GM is going to keep his 1 sack wonder can’t believe we got him OLB rookie sensation.
I agree with you their as well; I didn’t like the kid coming out of college; I told everybody he wasn’t going to make that big of a splash. He is too weak! His work ethic was poor according to his own Coaches at the University of Georgia. Why the Hell Colbert/Tomlin selected this kid is beyond me. He was a 1st rd draft choice, #18 overall; he should have contributed a lot more than what he did. Is he a bust? Too early to tell, but I will say this, I’m not impressed at all!!!!!
Did I miss a couple of games? He had a solid year, but I wouldn’t call it a break out season.
This is a fair point. I’ll admit that we overstated his season a bit. We’ll borrow your term.