Quote Originally Posted by D Rock View Post
Woodley was coming off of 3 great years when he signed his new contract - 13.5, 11.5, and 10 sack seasons, including great performances in the playoffs. The contract he signed was not an issue at the time.

He came in the next season with his new money and started tearing it up. 9 sacks in the first 8 games, and then the injuries started and have plagued him for the past 1.5 seasons.

Looking back at that contract as a mistake is silly. At the time it was a great signing. ~10 million a year for one of the league's best sack artists, and a guy with consistent production.

Pass rushing DE's make more than that. There are 9 DE's with higher average/yr salaries. Woodley is still the 3rd highest average LB, but at the time he was also one of the best and rightly set the market price for a stud pass rushing OLB.

Don't let the injuries affect the hindsight 20/20 vision with this one. That was a good signing.
Playing OLB is more than just getting sacks. Is it worth it to pay that big a contract to a one-dimensional LB, who often disappears on the field for long stretches at a time, who tends to begin the season out of shape and out of sync, and expects to play his way into shape? That's what we did with Woodley. Hope he turns it around, but he's got a lot of ground to make up, especially after the past two seasons.