Pittsburgh Steelers Not Close To Long-Term Deal With Jason Worilds

Pittsburgh Steelers’ outside linebacker Jason Worilds surprised many this offseason when he quickly signed the Steelers transition tag to remain in Pittsburgh for one more season.

Jun 11, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jason Worilds (93) participates in agility drills during minicamp at the UPMC Sports Complex. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

With that, many felt a long-term deal for Worilds would come sooner rather than later.

That hasn’t happened and it likely won’t anytime in the near future.

There have been no productive talks between Worilds’ camp and the Steelers, reports Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Rooney family has traditionally been reluctant to overpay for their own impending free agents, which doesn’t bode well for Worilds in the long run. That is especially true when you consider the salary cap issues that the franchise has had over the course of the past few years.

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After getting burned by their long-term commitment to LaMarr Woodley after he a couple of productive seasons, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert will likely be extremely hesitant to offer Worilds a long-term deal after one productive year.

Worilds had a great close to the 2013 season after not being very effective early in his career, mostly due to injury and a lack of playing time. The Virginia Tech product finished the season with seven sacks and 20 quarterback hits in the final eight games of 2013, which coincidently happened to come during a contract season.

If he can stretch that level of play over 16 games this season, it will work out very well for Worilds, but likely bad for the Steelers as with each sack and quarterback pressure it could become increasingly more difficult to lock him up.

There’s a pretty good chance that the 2014 season could be Worilds last in a Steelers uniform.

Enjoy him while you can.