The Steelers have used their Transition Tag on Jason Worilds. Basically, he's been tendered an offer and the Steelers have the right to match any contract offered by another team. In the meantime, Worilds will count for $9.754 million against the cap.
That's a lot of money.
The Steelers, despite having restructured Heath Miller's contract (to some degree), are still in cap trouble. With the mammoth salaries owed to guys like Ike Taylor, LaMarr Woodley, and [mysteriously] Levi Brown, coupled with this big deal for Worilds, the Steelers are going to have to make some more moves before March 11. We know Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Troy Polamalu probably aren't going anywhere, but guys like Taylor and Woodley could be in trouble. Which spells more trouble.
If they cut Woodley:
The Steelers would go into the season with Jarvis Jones and Jason Worilds as the starting OLBs. That's not a good position to be in. It would probably be necessary to invest another high pick in an outside linebacker, but with no third round pick in this draft, they'll have to be spent wisely.
If they cut Taylor:
Now you have like $20 million invested in two linebackers, one who has like one good game on his resume, and the other hasn't made a play since 2010. And the starting CB tandem would be… uh… William Gay and, umm… Cortez Allen I guess? That is also a recipe for disaster, and would basically force the Steelers to draft a CB in round 1 and probably rely on him to start right away.
Things are getting really tight for the Steelers. Free agency is coming up, but it doesn't look like Colbert has a lot of freedom here.
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