What do the Steelers do with Jason Worilds?

By: Steel By Design

While Steelers like Marcus Gilbert and Cortez Allen received long term deals in the off-season; pass rusher Jason Worilds decided to play out the year on his transition tag tender.

Early on, it seemed like the Steelers may have made a good move not giving him a huge amount of money because he was practically invisible for the first quarter of the season.

In the past two games the Steelers defense has started generating pressure, seemingly out of nowhere. Part of that is probably more blitzing and James Harrison getting in shape.

But I think the biggest reason is Jason Worilds is starting to warm up. Despite not getting a sack in either of the past two games, Worilds has generated a ton of pressure on the quarterback. He’s started getting attention from offenses, opening up opportunities for others along the front 7.

Several have pointed out this season that Jason Worilds has typically been a slow starter every season.

Three weeks ago I would have said the Steelers had an easy decision. Let Worilds walk, or sign him at a drastically reduced price.

Now, however, things get sort of tricky.

My guess is if Worilds keeps his current pace, and only finishes the season with something like 6-8 sacks, it won’t matter much in contract negotiations. Teams will be aware of the pressure Worilds brings without getting a sack, and if he keeps rushing like he has the sacks will come.

In short, that means his price tag probably isn’t going down in free agency.

READ MORE: http://www.steelcityblitz.com/2014/10/30/steelers-jason-worilds/

I have been wondering where Worilds has been all year. Definitely not worth big money since he has been like a ghost. There are plenty of guys out there that can be good enough to create for others but not good enough to finish the job themselves.

I think the early injuries had him out of position, not out of scheme, but out of necessity. Now with players starting to come back healthy, we'll get to see his talents.

Which in turn, will put both him and the Steelers in a good situation moving forward.

Even if he ends up with 6-8 sacks I don't think he is worth a ton of money. If memory serves me we did that with Woodley right before all the injuries and lack of production started. This situation reminds me of that.

I think Worilds is a bit different and with the right additions to the LB Corp (i.e. Shazier), it could create a different scenario. Similar to how Woodley helped Silverbacks production, Shazier can help Worilds' and likewise Worilds can help Shazier's production

stlrtruck wrote:

I think Worilds is a bit different and with the right additions to the LB Corp (i.e. Shazier), it could create a different scenario.  Similar to how Woodley helped Silverbacks production, Shazier can help Worilds' and likewise Worilds can help Shazier's production

If they do sign him to a hefty payday I hope you're right. Looking back I think Woodley got lazy and didn't stay in shape causing his problems. I don't know enough about Worilds but I'm all for a win/win situation.

We'll see how you guys feel when he's playing for the Cardinals next season.

I agree with what Truck said. His lack of production is due, in part, to having him drop back in coverage. We discussed that issue here: http://www.steelersxtreme.com/t5340-steelers-scheming-worilds-out-of-what-he-does-best?highlight=Worilds

As for what the Steelers should do with him, I think it's too early to make a decision. A lot depends on how he plays the rest of the season.

Resign him without breaking the bank would be great!

I'm still undecided on him. I liked him a lot last year but this year he just isn't playing exciting football. I often have wondered where he is. We'll see what happens the 2nd half of the season.

He won't be in Pittsburgh next season.

If he breaks double-digit sacks, then he prices himself out of what the Steelers can afford to pay him (not in that they don't have the financial ability to pay him, but in the salary cap won't let us scenario).

If he comes in at equal or less than what he did last year, I don't think he will want to return here and the Steelers may not want him back. He will likely want at least equal to what he was paid this year, and I don't think the Steelers are going to give him that for average production, especially if he can't do more than rush the passer.

I have never been a huge Worilds fan. ALL he can do is rush the passer, he hasn't proven to be more than average against the run, and he's below average in coverage. When he was healthy Woodley was a great pass rusher, slightly above average against the run, and average in coverage versus power RB's/average TE's/fullbacks. You didn't ask him to cover Antonio Gates or LeSean McCoy ouyt of the backfield because he couldn't. But he could at least cover a guy like Blount.

Tom_the_Torch wrote:

He won't be in Pittsburgh next season.

If he breaks double-digit sacks, then he prices himself out of what the Steelers can afford to pay him (not in that they don't have the financial ability to pay him, but in the salary cap won't let us scenario).

If he comes in at equal or less than what he did last year, I don't think he will want to return here and the Steelers may not want him back.

I think you might be right Tom. If he has a monster second half, he'll likely price himself out of our range. If he continues at the same level, why would we give him the money he'll probably want? Even if he doesn't have a monster second half and a lot of teams aren't beating down his door, there will still be a few teams *cough* Cardinals *cough* that will offer him more money than we'll be able and/or willing to give him.

With that said, things aren't as predictable as they used to be. If Dan was still running things, I'd say with almost certainty that Worilds won't be back. With Art, decisions are less predictable. Art tends to do some things Dan wouldn't have done. So I'm not going to say there's no way Worilds will return.

Wallace108 wrote:

Tom_the_Torch wrote:

He won't be in Pittsburgh next season.

If he breaks double-digit sacks, then he prices himself out of what the Steelers can afford to pay him (not in that they don't have the financial ability to pay him, but in the salary cap won't let us scenario).

If he comes in at equal or less than what he did last year, I don't think he will want to return here and the Steelers may not want him back.

I think you might be right Tom. If he has a monster second half, he'll likely price himself out of our range. If he continues at the same level, why would we give him the money he'll probably want? Even if he doesn't have a monster second half and a lot of teams aren't beating down his door, there will still be a few teams *cough* Cardinals *cough* that will offer him more money than we'll be able and/or willing to give him.

With that said, things aren't as predictable as they used to be. If Dan was still running things, I'd say with almost certainty that Worilds won't be back. With Art, decisions are less predictable. Art tends to do some things Dan wouldn't have done. So I'm not going to say there's no way Worilds will return.

The thing is, when this season is up, Worilds isn't going to be thinking about fitting in a scheme or chances to win Super Bowls. He's going to sign with whoever offers him the most money. That's going to be his focus.

I've never been a huge Worilds fan, I'll admit. He isn't necessarily a bad player, but he's also never going to be Woodley or Harrison in their primes.

Tom_the_Torch wrote:

The thing is, when this season is up, Worilds isn't going to be thinking about fitting in a scheme or chances to win Super Bowls. He's going to sign with whoever offers him the most money. That's going to be his focus.

That's true for a lot of players, but not all. I don't know enough about Worilds to say one way or the other whether he'd take less money to stay in Pittsburgh. And I don't know what the Steelers will be able and willing to offer him. In my opinion, it's 50/50 that he'll be back. Obviously, if he kicks ass in the second half, those odds will decrease.

Tom_the_Torch wrote:

I've never been a huge Worilds fan, I'll admit. He isn't necessarily a bad player, but he's also never going to be Woodley or Harrison in their primes.

We're definitely on the same page. I was hoping he'd be a beast this year, but so far I haven't seen what I was expecting.

I have to eat some crow and say that he made a nice interception last night.

I agree with Truck and Wally: Worilds is benefiting from the production of his teammates, not the other way around (the one point in the article I disagree with).

First, it's whoever is playing left end. Pressure from that positions helps Worilds; then the right OLB; then pressure up the middle. Here's why it's that order:

• Having a left end that is getting penetration into the backfield forces the opposing offense to start using their right tackle to block that end. The offense then uses either a TE or RB to block Worilds. There was an article over the summer where the young linebackers were telling how Joey Porter let them know that TEs and RBs don't want to block linebackers ... that has a lot of truth to it. Regardless, the opportunity for good OLBs to get to the QB goes up when they face TEs and RBs as opposed to tackles.
  
  
• If the right OLB begins getting good pressure, the opposing offense starts to use TEs and RBS to either chip or double team with the tackle. Thus, this ensures Worilds is singled with a tackle or TE on his side.
  
  
• Pressure up the middle forces the opposing offense to slide their linemen in, again giving Worilds the opportunity to go against a TE or RB. Or, the RB will have to block someone penetrating in the middle, leaving Worilds to beat a single block on the outside.
  

This is what I've been seeing. It's great when you see LeBeau's defense begin to click. Opposing offenses become confused as to where the pressure is coming from. Unlike in the past, the opposition isn't just confused as to which LBs are coming on a given play, they are now worried about pressure from any of the front seven. That's what I've seen in the past three games.

Wally, thanks for posting the Worilds dropping into coverage link. When he made that pick, I immediately thought Worilds isn't going to complain about dropping into coverage. Here's the reality of LeBeau's system: If a player does the exact same thing every single play (such as rush the QB), the defense become predictable and it's easy for an offense to block and a QB to feel comfortable throwing. By having defensive players consistently in unexpected positions, offenses become confused and frustrated.

Many of us thought it would take half the season to see this defense come together. Sure we've bitched and griped about the play and results up to this point, but it seems this defense is starting to come together. It really does take 11 guys to shut an offense down. If one person doesn't do their job (eg: Cortez Allen), the offense makes a play.

As the newer guys on the team understand their roles and how to play in this system, they suffocate their opponents. We've clearly seen that in the front seven the past few games. I hope the secondary begins to gel as well. If that happens, this team becomes a very dangerous team.

If Jason is not on the team next year regardless of how well he performs or because the Steelers can't afford him, then the team needs to draft a good playmaking linebacker in the draft. If memory serves me right, the Steelers are thin at the outside linebacker position.

the Steelers are thin a few positions.