Woodley Isn’t Going Anywhere
Ok, now I’ve read this too many times, (and these are the opinions of reputable scribes), not to offer some kind of opinion in response. Woodley isn’t leaving; he won’t be cut or traded. Here’s why.
The Steelers have restructured him twice, both times pushing large cap hits into future years. If they release him before June 1, the net cap impact is only 580K via a $14.17 million dead money hit, less his projected cap cost of $13.59 Million. If they release him after June 1, or sooner with a post June 1 designation, the net cap impact is a savings of $8 million via the prorated portion of his bonuses for 2014 of $5.59 million, less his 2013 cap hit of $13.59 million. BUT, they would be pushing $8.58 million into 2015 via his remaining bonus proration. These numbers hold true for the respective dates whether he is traded or released.
You can make the argument that you could structure a deal that replaces Woodley with that $8 million savings in year one, you cannot ignore the cap hit in 2015 though. You also have to consider whether the Steelers would be willing to consider investing over $30 million in bonus money into a player and then letting him walk. That figure does not include his salaries over the last three years, just bonus money.
In my opinion, the only way that Worilds stays is if the Steelers move Woodley to the right and stick Worilds on the left side; thus pushing Jones to the backup role he should have held as a rookie. IF and that’s a big if, they don’t restructure Woodley yet again this year, they can contemplate trading or releasing him in 2015 and then insert Jones on the right. Is this the right move? Maybe. Let’s be honest though. Worilds having success for a few games does not amount to the same sustained success that Harrison or Woodley had from 2007 to 2010. Worilds does not look like the second coming of Kevin Greene at LOLB; not yet anyway. In point of fact as far as sustained success goes, he isn’t even on the same level with Keenan Lewis, whom the Steelers let walk.
But, if they could sign Worilds to a deal that they could in effect walk away from after one year via a small signing bonus, or by putting that bonus into the form of a roster bonus, it might be worth it to try for a year to see if Worilds could sustain that performance over a year. That kind of contract arrangement and sticking him on the left side would be the only way I would like to see this done though. Heck, we don’t even know if Woodley can play effectively on the right. And, let’s be honest, we NEED someone on the right to do so in order for the Steelers to consistently get pressure like they used to. It can’t be one sided. Offenses just send their extra protection to one side and nullify that advantage.
In closing, I really have to wonder if these stories are being written as a favor for an agent to drum up interest in his client. Or, are they, at the very least, the product of information being fed to journalists about interest from other teams, which may or may not even exist after a few solid games. I mean, we’ve seen this with QBs before, but would a team really be foolish enough to ignore the rest of a player’s body of work when he’s a linebacker?
