Worilds: What I don't understand

[Shawn]

Reading recent threads and getting a general feel for public opinion about Worilds has left me scratching my head. So, I thought I would start a thread to discuss it.

Worilds has been often injured, and got usurped by a rookie. He has a really great half of a season...the only good play I have seen from the guy...during a contract year mind you. So, why is it that many of us want to sign him to a fat contract in the offseason? He has had years to prove his worth and chooses to turn it on with 8 games left in his contract? That's when he is healthy and effective?

How is that any better than Woodley? The Steelers are already on the hook for Woodleys contract. Why would we want to make the same mistake twice?

Discuss.

[SteelBuckeye]

You "TRY" to keep Worilds because after an oft injured Woodley and an unproven JJ, you have absolutely nothing at the position. If you let him walk, you have to hope that Woodley can put together a good season so that the OLB you better have drafted this year has a season to develop. It's the organizations fault for not drafting better talent at the position in the past few years when they knew Harrison was aging and saw Woodley's play and health deteriorating. Then when they get a couple of undrafted prospects that seem to have potential, they cut them.

[Shawn]

You "TRY" to keep Worilds because after an oft injured Woodley and an unproven JJ, you have absolutely nothing at the position. If you let him walk, you have to hope that Woodley can put together a good season so that the OLB you better have drafted this year has a season to develop. It's the organizations fault for not drafting better talent at the position in the past few years when they knew Harrison was aging and saw Woodley's play and health deteriorating. Then when they get a couple of undrafted prospects that seem to have potential, they cut them.

Agreed, you attempt to keep Worilds. Shoot, I want to keep Worilds. But, IMO you can't break the bank on him. He has to be willing to sign a mid tier contract.

[sick beats]

Reading recent threads and getting a general feel for public opinion about Worilds has left me scratching my head. So, I thought I would start a thread to discuss it.

Worilds has been often injured, and got usurped by a rookie. He has a really great half of a season...the only good play I have seen from the guy...during a contract year mind you. So, why is it that many of us want to sign him to a fat contract in the offseason? He has had years to prove his worth and chooses to turn it on with 8 games left in his contract? That's when he is healthy and effective?

How is that any better than Woodley? The Steelers are already on the hook for Woodleys contract. Why would we want to make the same mistake twice?

Discuss.

I can only speak for myself, but I do believe many share my opinion on this. I don't want JW signed to a deal the size of LW's. But, if we could get him for something far more reasonable, I would be for that. Can we? IDK. But I would like to at least see if it could happen. But nothing in the 8 figures per year. No way. Let's see what the market dictates, but there are some teams with lots of cap space who could use him, if he would offer the play he did coming down the stretch this season. As far as why we would even want him.....maybe it took him this long to learn the super complex, tricky Dick Leboo system, like they endlessly tell us about.

[feltdizz]

Where is Worilds rated when it comes to OLB in FA this year? I can't find anything but maybe I'm googling the wrong words.

Edit: Found something.. he is rated pretty high on rotoworld.

duece's Worilds

[Shawn]

Despite being hurt and very average for most of his career he will command high dollar on the open market. This is an issue with knowing the talent you had. Can you imagine how easily we could have re-signed him last season. He would have jumped at the chance to play for the Steelers at 2 mil per season. Now...not so much. Our ability to assess our own talent is hurting the team.

[RKSteel]

Despite being hurt and very average for most of his career he will command high dollar on the open market. This is an issue with knowing the talent you had. Can you imagine how easily we could have re-signed him last season. He would have jumped at the chance to play for the Steelers at 2 mil per season. Now...not so much. Our ability to assess our own talent is hurting the team.

The team did assess its talent, it drafted a OLB to back-up an oft injured back-up who never seized the opportunity when JH or LW were hurt. Then he got beat out by a rookie.
I think the Steelers will offer him a fair contract based on his overall play, not the last 8 games of a contract year. Then its up to JW to decide if he wants to stay with a great organization or "take care of his family."

[SteelBuckeye]

Despite being hurt and very average for most of his career he will command high dollar on the open market. This is an issue with knowing the talent you had. Can you imagine how easily we could have re-signed him last season. He would have jumped at the chance to play for the Steelers at 2 mil per season. Now...not so much. Our ability to assess our own talent is hurting the team.

I wonder if it's an inability to assess the talent versus an inability to create enough cap room? If the former, we are pretty much doomed. If the latter, we should be coming out of being crippled by the cap soon. I'd hope that in the next few years, the Steelers get back to developing and signing their own and sprinkling in some key free agents. I truly believe that holding on to some of the core players of our SB runs in an attempt to make another run hurt this team and led to not getting younger players the playing time they needed in order to make correct evaluations. A coaching decision? A FO decision? An ownership decision? I think it was a decision made by all of them and they failed to prepare for the eventuality that those core guys were going to get old, slow, fat and injury prone.

[SteelerMaine83]

If he could be brought back for a reasonable price, do it. But I also worry a little about guys who suddenly light it up in contract years (half-year in his case?). I really like glass-eating football players with the non-stop motors and a consistently nasty attitude. Sometimes, those guys are better found in Rounds 4-7 (something to prove).

[Shawn]

The team did assess its talent, it drafted a OLB to back-up an oft injured back-up who never seized the opportunity when JH or LW were hurt. Then he got beat out by a rookie.
I think the Steelers will offer him a fair contract based on his overall play, not the last 8 games of a contract year. Then its up to JW to decide if he wants to stay with a great organization or "take care of his family."

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. Yes, they assessed Worilds as being a talent through the draft...great. But, somewhere per coaching he was so bad that JJ a fresh rook replaced him. Through injury they find out...wow Worilds can play...but we had him on the wrong side all along. So, I'm not sure how anyone could say assessing their current talent isn't a problem...just like letting Heyward rot the bench until this season. The guy is a beast...how did they not see that?

[Eddie Spaghetti]

playing him on the wrong side didn't help, and is on the coaches, IMO. Lebeau as well as tomlin. Don't know why they couldn't have figured that out as he is a much different player on the left.

I wouldn't give woirlds more than 5 per year, and he won't sign for that, I don't believe. OLB may higher than we think on the draft board. Woirlds walks, grit your teeth and keep lamar one more year until the cap hit lessens, and draft 1 or 2 OLB prospects.

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

That will be the thought process. They will try to lock up Worilds & if they are successful...They will discard Woodley. If they can't retain Worilds...Woodley will be here for '14. Woodley's contract averaged over 10 mil per season. Worilds will probably max between 7-8 mil. What is Worilds willing to stay for & what are the Steelers willing to pay is the unknown.

Woodley's last 4 season he played 50 games. Harrisons last 4 season here he played 56 games. Worilds first 4 years...57 games. Where was Worilds production the first three years? Well lets see. Before last year...Worilds had 10 starts out of the 42 games. In the same time frame Lamar Woodley had 39 starts out of 39 games. Harrison had 40 starts out of 40 games. Sacks over that time...Worilds 10, Woodley 23, & Harrison 25.5. Does anything stick out to you over those numbers? So let me go a step further. If you include '13 starts that would give Worilds 21 starts & 18 sacks. That would be 21/18 Worilds, 39/23 Woodley, & 40/25.5 Harrison. How is that comparison looking? In starting roles...That's .86 sacks a game for Worilds, .59 sacks a game for Woodley, & .64 sacks a game for Harrison. Lets "hypothetically" project his 2014 season off his 2013 season. 16 starts 96 TT & 12 sacks. That would put him at 37 starts & 30 sacks. Just curious...What's he worth now?

Hurt & Average most of his career? Nope. He played more games than Woodley & Harrison over that three year span. Average? How elite can you be with Woodley & Harrison starting 83% of the game & you are their back-up? Worilds won the starting job back...Stacked 10 starts in a row & produced 8 sacks. If he started 16 at LOLB...He may have been in the 12-14 sack range at 25. When Woodley was 25, he had a 13.5 sack season. When Harrison was 25 he played in 1 game and zeroed everything for the year. Harrison didn't become a full time starter until he was 29. You don't like the guy...SO be it. But average & often injured really has no grounds. The guy has shown production & at 25...The surface has only been scratched. There is a risk with any big paydays coming off rookie deals. Worilds last year of his rookie deal fell upon the year the Steelers released a legend & he got his shot. Call it coincidence or peculiar...Worilds produced.

[feltdizz]

The team did assess its talent, it drafted a OLB to back-up an oft injured back-up who never seized the opportunity when JH or LW were hurt. Then he got beat out by a rookie.
I think the Steelers will offer him a fair contract based on his overall play, not the last 8 games of a contract year. Then its up to JW to decide if he wants to stay with a great organization or "take care of his family."

I'm taking care of my family and you would too... sorry but unless the numbers are inches apart I don't see how a player stays on a team when he can get paid and be treated like the man on his new team.

[flippy]

Worilds is great on the left side. Always has been. He just finally got a chance to play there in place of Woodley. I'd franchise him if I had to.

He doesn't just bring pressure, but he's a tackling machine to boot. He pretty much put up James Harrison type numbers in his stint this season on the left.

[feltdizz]

I wonder if it's an inability to assess the talent versus an inability to create enough cap room? If the former, we are pretty much doomed. If the latter, we should be coming out of being crippled by the cap soon. I'd hope that in the next few years, the Steelers get back to developing and signing their own and sprinkling in some key free agents. I truly believe that holding on to some of the core players of our SB runs in an attempt to make another run hurt this team and led to not getting younger players the playing time they needed in order to make correct evaluations. A coaching decision? A FO decision? An ownership decision? I think it was a decision made by all of them and they failed to prepare for the eventuality that those core guys were going to get old, slow, fat and injury prone.

it's the inability to see what the young guys have to offer because you have vets who are proven and hard to replace... well, hard to replace until they fall off a cliff or get cut when we run out of money.

We tried to do it one more time and it bit us in the backside. usually we shed a few aging vets but lately we have been bringing them back. I often wonder if our old school approach isn't translating to these new kids we are drafting.