The Pittsburgh Steelers have had the opportunity to add four new faces to the organization since free agency began, the most recent of them not being a signing via free agency, but rather an acquisition via trade, with the Baltimore Ravens, of all teams. The team sent their future fifth-round pick to Baltimore in exchange for fourth-year defensive lineman Chris Wormley, who will step right into the rotation, once he gets here at least.
Wormley is not new to Steelers Nation by any means, however, and he told Missi Matthews that there are probably some pictures floating around of him when he was younger wearing the jerseys of Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu.
Having played the Steelers twice a year with the Ravens as AFC North rivals, it’s not as though he would be unfamiliar with anybody, but Worley did get the opportunity to meet his new head coach, Mike Tomlin, twice while he was still in Michigan.
“I met him twice when I was in college. He was at a Pro Day for the University of Michigan, so he was at one of our Pro Days when I was maybe a sophomore in college and got to shake his hand and talk to him for a few minutes”, he said. “And then I had dinner with him when he came back for my Pro Day in 2017 at Michigan. So a couple of interactions. He’s a great coach, obviously he’s won a Super Bowl. Excited to be a part of the organization with him”.
He also posted a picture of himself with Tomlin from all the way back in 2014, writing on Instagram, “I had the privilege of meeting my favorite NFL coach today! It was great speaking with Coach Tomlin for a few minutes!”.
It’s not exactly news that Tomlin has historically been popular among players, whether in the NFL or at the college level, but not all of them are players who actually grew up rooting for the Steelers as kids. The team has added a couple of such players this offseason, including area native Stefen Wisniewski.
The Steelers were interesting in Wormley coming out of the draft in 2017, but they ended up not drafting a lineman at all that year, after having previously selected Javon Hargrave the year before, and signing Tyson Alualu in free agency.
Wormley was drafted in the third round, 74th overall, just 12 spots after the Steelers drafted JuJu Smith-Schuster at the end of the second round. They had two third-round selections that year, taking cornerback Cameron Sutton at 94 and then running back James Conner at 105.
