Scott Brown of ESPN, citing a league source, reports that the Steelers have no plans to use their transition tag on free agent OLB Jason Worilds for the second year in row.
According to Brown, Pittsburgh is prepared to allow the Worilds to test the open market and field offers from prospective teams.
Adam Caplan mentions that this year’s group of pass rushers could be the deepest position, which means it will be interesting to see what kind of interest he finds in the coming weeks.
Last week, Steelers GM Kevin Colbert told that Jason La Canfora that they’ve spoke to Worilds and told him that they would like to have him back next year.
However, Colbert added that Worilds may need to gauge the open market first to determine his worth.
This probably isn’t a bad strategy for the Steelers.
In the event someone is willing to offer Worilds a huge contract, the Steelers can pass and likely collect a compensatory draft pick in 2016. But if the market for Worilds only produces reasonable offers, Pittsburgh can gauge their cap situation and either match the offer or possibly improve upon it.
Worilds recently came up as speculative option for the Titans, now that they’ve added Dick LeBeau to their defensive coaching staff.
Worilds, 26, appeared in all 16 games for the Steelers this past season and recorded 59 tackles, 7.5 sacks, one interception, a forced fumble and two recoveries.
Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 11 outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense out of 46 qualifying players. We have Worilds listed as the No. 19 player in our Top 100 Free Agents list.
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