Jason Worilds

Jason Worilds announces retirement at just 27 years old. He played all 5 seasons of his NFL career with the Steelers.

Fantasy Impact

Jason Worilds was a key contributor to the Steelers defense in 2013 and 2014. He played 5 seasons with the Steelers, and started the last 2 seasons. Worilds was set to become a free agent and was likely to sign a big deal. His announcement of retirement is shocking to the city of Pittsburgh and the NFL community.

Worilds recorded 3 tackles, 2 assists and a sack.

Fantasy Impact

The Steelers were expecting big things from Worilds this year and it appears as though he won't disappoint. Recording one of the team's 3 sacks, Worilds seems as though he is ready to take the next step in his play. With upcoming games versus Carolina and Tampa and potential match ups versus quarterbacks Anderson (vice Newton on a short week) and McCown, Worilds has the possibility to add to his sack total early in the season.

After 3½ seasons of bouncing around on special teams, on the injured list and, occasionally, at outside linebacker, Worilds burst into the Steelers defense in the second half of last season. As the Steelers end two weeks of training camp and prepare for their first preseason game Saturday night at the New York Giants, he has given every indication he is ready to resume that kind of play in 2014.

Fantasy Impact

Worilds has been a monster in these first two weeks, has avoided any nagging injuries and has a job he finally can call his own at left outside linebacker. If anyone knows defense and defensive players, it's the Steelers. To say the Steelers have faith in him is an understatement as they gave him a new contract that will pay him more than 9.7 million dollars more than any other player on the defense. 7 of his team high 8 sacks last year came during an 8 game stretch when he started each game. His Expert's Consensus Ranking (ECR) is listed at 43, which could be low. With the speedster Shazier plugging the holes in the middle, this should allow Worilds the freedom to rush the passer with a little more regularity and increasing his sack total from last year. Consider Worilds a LB3 on your team with the upside to record double digit sacks this year.

Five months after he agreed to a one-year transition tag that prevented Worilds from becoming an unrestricted free agent and guaranteed him $9.745 million, and 34 days until the Steelers self-imposed cutoff date to negotiate contracts arrives, no significant talks have occurred between the two sides.

Fantasy Impact

This is news...and it's not. Worilds seems to be content on playing this year under the transition tag and says all the right things about not caring for money (not news). However, every person and player does care about money and their personal future, so it would seem Worilds would want to improve upon last year's stats (he led the team with 8 sacks) to give him max leverage in negotiations. The Steelers, for their part, may want to wait until next year to negotiate a contract with Worilds when the salary cap is due to rise. The issue the Steelers may run into is that they have already promised Roethlisberger a new contract after the 2014 season, so any new cap space may be erased depending on the terms of any new contracts.