Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Jason Worilds continues to be a huge mystery as to what his availability will be to start the season. Because of his offseason wrist surgery, and failure to be able to practice during any of the offseason programs, I was not terribly surprised that he started training camp off on the Active PUP list. What I do find a bit surprising, though, is that with camp scheduled to break on Friday, Worilds has still yet to removed from the list.
Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review told me this week on an episode of the wrap up podcast that Worilds seems to be a bit miffed as to why he isn\’t participating yet as well. Of course he might not be as healthy as he thinks he is, but something is just not adding up here.
On Wednesday head coach Mike Tomlin stated that Worilds is still week-to-week. Linebackers coach Keith Butler told my co-host David Todd a short time ago, that despite Worilds being able to work on the side and appearing to be in good physical shape, that he needs to get on the field and get reps.
With James Harrison having his left knee scoped on Wednesday, he most likely will not be able to play in any of the preseason games. There are rumblings that he might not be ready for the opening Sunday night game in Denver as well, but that is still several weeks away.
With the above said, are the Steelers just keeping Worilds on ice as long as possible with the wrist? Will they turn him loose next week after the Sunday night game against the Indianapolis Colts so he can at least get two weeks in prior to the start of the season? Is the wrist just not healed yet? Are they keeping him sidelined to avoid a season ending injury so they can release him once Harrison returns to health?
The above questions are what everyone is asking right now that nobody has the answers to. Cutting Worilds only saves $540,000 against the cap, but none of that matters if they just do not think he is worthy of making the roster.
Hopefully the mystery of Worilds becomes a little clearer as soon as next week, but I have a feeling it wont.
