Steelers Jason Worilds Belongs On A Milk Carton

The Steelers need to file a missing persons report and get the info onto a milk carton.  Usually that sort of thing used to (is it still done?) be reserved for children on the local quart of milk – you know, the ones usually sold at Uni Mart.  But we’ll make an exception this time around.

Jason Worilds has been missing for the majority of the 2014 season, and if there wasn’t the advent of DVR and re-watching game film, you might not ever think he stepped out onto the field at any given point on any given Sunday.  Oh sure, he has 50 tackles and 4.5 sacks in 13 games, so he’s not completely missing from this defense.  But, the Steelers inconsistencies in bringing on the heat from the pass rush has been frustrating, a large part of why they give up so many points, and puts him front and center of it all.

You’ll remember that Worilds’ original contract was up this past offseason.  The Steelers slapped the transitional tag on him, something that is not done nearly as frequently as the franchise tag.  With that, the Steelers were set to pay Worilds $9 million for the season.  A hefty price tag, but his huge second half to 2013 and eight sacks gave comfort within the gamble of paying that much for a guy who in large part was pedestrian up until the last seven weeks of the 2013 season.

Worilds is back to his ‘old form’ and struggling to get any kind of consistent pressure on the quarterback when he blitzes.  He’s lost his explosiveness and ability to gain an edge around the right tackle (the weaker side).  He has 50 tackles to his credit, but they in large part come once the ball carrier has passed the line of scrimmage and into the second level.  Only seven of those 50 have been for a loss.

I guess we can all be relieved that the Steelers didn’t sign this guy to anything long term.  The did, of course, offer him a long term contract.  But, he rejected any offer the Steelers put in front of him.  Steeler Nation is thanking their lucky stars on that one – he won’t be back next season.  But, this just continues the trend that this front office, specifically GM Kevin Colbert are cultivating the reputation of making bad signings.  This would have been one of them were Worilds to agree to an extension.

$9 million is a lot of dough for such low production.

The Steelers haven’t wasted this kind of money on a player (let alone an OLB) since re-signing LaMarr Woodley and that was way back in…. oh…. never mind.