There are still roughly 100 days to go until the start of the Pittsburgh Steelers 2014 regular-season. Unless something changes between now and then, linebacker Jason Worilds will likely play the year under the one-year, $9.754 million transition tag that he signed back in March.
According to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, there have been no productive talks between the Steelers and Worilds thus far and quite frankly, that news is not too surprising.
Back in March, I wrote about how the Steelers might be best served to treat Worilds much in the same way that they treated tackle Max Starks back in 2008. In other words, let him play a season on the transition tag in order to prove that a long-term contract should be an option.
While Worilds did have a good 2013 season from a statistical standpoint, he still hasn’t shown that he’s a complete player and that he can perform on a consistent basis. Leaving him on the transition tag in 2014 will give him an opportunity to prove that he can build on to his 2013 season while paying him a healthy sum of money.
If need be, the Steelers can just tag Worilds again next offseason if he does play well in 2014 and at that time the two sides can attempt to hammer out a long-term deal.
