Steelers reasoning for letting Lewis go...

[Shoe]

I wish I could agree with you shoe. I think the "Sticking to guns theory" is part of the problem. Woodley got his fat contract and hasn't lived up to it. Worilds "An ascending player" as you put it.. is younger, and deserving of a shot.

We are going to have to make some aggressive moves in order to get back where we need to be...with some luck undoubtedly..and I'm afraid the "Same old" is going to give us just that... 8 and 8's into the forseeable future.

Just to be clear: If we are just talking about player vs. player, I'd take Worilds over fatboy easily. The problem is, the cost associated. Assuming we can convince fatboy to take a paycut, it would work out pretty well, cap number wise.

Say Woodley is making $10m this year. We ask him to cut to $6.5m. We let Worilds walk, draft a young replacement (maybe a $2m or $3m), and move forward. Go the other route now. We sign Worilds. Let's say we get off cheap, at $8.5m a year. We eat a portion of Woodley's contract, cutting him outright. Maybe that is $5m.

These numbers are all hypothetical (I don't know the particulars), but in the first scenario, we have tied under $10 to that position. In the other scenario, we have approaching $15m, and we are stsill in a similar situation (relying on an injury-prone guy... both Woodley and Worilds can't stay healthy). In the former scenario, at least we would have a young replacement waiting in the wings.

The other knock on this whole scenario, is that spending a high pick on another OLB takes away that choice that could be used at another position.