Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert is making his media rounds this week prior to leaving for scouting combine and on Thursday he was interviewed on DVE Radio. During the interview, Colbert was asked to comment again on former linebacker Joey Porter being hired this past week as a defensive assistant and his response was interesting.
“Having known Joey when he was here as a player, you know what he can bring from a passion standpoint,” said Colbert. “But we’ve seen him grow at Colorado State as a coach and Joey is a very technically sound pass rush guy, so we’re looking forward to the techniques and the idiosyncrasies that he can add to the pass rush of some of our young guys, including [Jason] Worilds and Jarvis [Jones]. So Joey’s kind of a been there, done that, guy, but he’ll also bring some fire and some passion to the pass rush.”
The interesting part is that Colbert included Jason Worilds being as he currently isn’t a under contract for 2014. Colbert was immediately asked about the soon-to-be free agent and if both he and LaMarr Woodley can be retained next season.
“Yeah, that’s possible,” said Colbert. “Obviously Jason had a great finish and even in 2012 when he had a chance to play, I think he had five sacks in 40 percent of the snaps. So Jason’s been productive when he’s had the opportunity to play. Of course he’s been behind some pretty good guys and LaMarr was one of those guys.
“LaMarr’s health is something that we have to continue to monitor, because he hasn’t held up over the last three years and I know that’s frustrating for him. But could we have both of them? Yes, we could, but it depends on how everything will shake out in these next couple of weeks as far as us getting in [salary cap] compliance.”
It’s not hard to read between the lines here, especially being as team president Art Rooney II said a few weeks ago that the hope is to get Worilds locked up long term. Colbert makes it sound like Worilds returning is a done deal and while he says it’s possible to keep Woodley in addition, it’s becoming clearer everyday that the chances of that happening are very unlikely.
