Worilds recorded his first sack of 2014 in the season opener against the Cleveland Browns. It came on a first down and against Browns backup tight end Jim Dray. Worilds first responsibility on the play is to set the edge against the run and after getting his arms extended into Dray’s chest, he frees himself to get around the outside. While it’s a 4.0 second sack, Worilds does show some bend around the corner and nearly strips the ball from Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer.
Worilds’ second sack of the season ddidn’t come until Week 5 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. On that play Worilds gets a cleanup sack of Jaguars rookie quarterback Blake Bortles after beating fullback Will TaÊ»ufoÊ»ou. the Steelers front did a good job of providing pressure on the play which forces Bortles to try to escape. Worilds is there the make sure that doesn’t happen.
Worilds’ next sack wouldn’t come until Week 10 against the New York Jets and he was credited with a half of one. The play is initially blown up by fellow linebacker James Harrison and that forces Jets quarterback Michael Vick to try to escape. After easily sliding off of Jets running back Chris Ivory, Worilds and defensive end Cam Thomas split the easy sack.
Worilds would later record a full sack in the Jets game as he was allowed to rush untouched as the steelers sent five after Vick on the play.
Against the New Orleans Saints in Week 13, Worilds sacked quarterback Drew Brees after beating center Jonathan Goodwin on a tackle/end stunt
In the Week 16 game against the Chiefs, Worilds recorded two sacks of quarterback Alex Smith. The first, however, was another gift as Worilds runs a scrambling Smith out of bounds after Harrison forced him out of the pocket.
Worilds second sack in the game against the Chiefs was perhaps his most impressive one of the season and it was the only time in 2014 that he really beat a right tackle to record a quarterback take-down. Worilds did a good job of using his hands to dispose of Chiefs tackle Ryan Harris, who appears to help push the Steelers linebacker right into Smith’s lower body.
Worild’ final sack of 2014 came against the Cincinnati Bengals in the regular season finale and once again it was an easy one. On this play, Bengals tackle Eric Winston falls backwards at the snap after tangling feet with tight end Ryan Hewitt. With Winston on his back, Worilds gets a free run at quarterback Andy Dalton.
While I thought Worilds did slightly improve his play against the run in 2014, he still had his moments where he would get trapped inside. Out of his 436 pass rushing snaps, Pro Football Focus has him down for 50 total pressures including his sacks. That certainly isn’t good enough to earn him big money on the free agent market in my opinion. So how much is he worth a season? $4 million? $4.5 million? $5 million? Higher? If you pay him that much, then how much is Harrison worth should he return for one more season? Harrison rushed the passer 224 times in 2014 and was credited with 41 total quarterback pressures.
