March 04, 2015
In our Eagles offseason positional previews, we identified Steelers OLB Jason Worilds as a candidate to be targeted by the Eagles once free agency commenced. This was based on a casual revelation by ESPN's Adam Caplan during a 2014 Eagles-Steelers preseason game that the Eagles and Worilds would have come to a contract agreement if the Steelers hadn't used the transition tag on him.
#Steelers OLB Jason Worilds (who would have signed with the #Eagles), with speed rush past Barbre.
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) August 21, 2014
Here's what we said:
That doesn't just indicate interest from the Eagles. Rather, it appears that the Eagles and Worilds had mutual interest.
The Steelers paid Worilds $9,754,000 on the transition tag in 2014, and would be on the hook for 120% of his 2014 salary if they tagged him again. That might be too rich for their blood.
Worilds would be a good fit in Philly. The Steelers asked Worilds to drop into coverage quite a bit, and he would form a versatile OLB tandem with Connor Barwin, which would allow the Eagles to be creative in their defensive scheme
It was indeed too rich for the Steelers' blood, as they did not use the transition tag on Worilds for the second straight offseason. Rather, Worilds will be able to explore the open market, and the Eagles are reportedly interested yet again, per Dianna Marie Russini of NBC4 in Washington DC:
Per league sources the Eagles are expected to go after OLB Jason Worilds as soon as free agency starts #eagles #Steelers
— Dianna Marie Russini (@NBCdianna) March 4, 2015
Have we mentioned that the Eagles are going to be major players in free agency?
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