Worilds next in Steelers linebacker succession

[Galax Steeler]

By Gerry Dulac / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PHOENIX -- When he took over as head coach in 2007, Mike Tomlin inherited an immediate crisis in his defense: How to replace Joey Porter, one of the team's all-time sack leaders and inspirational players.

Porter, the right outside linebacker, had just turned 30 and was coming off a season in which he had seven sacks and two interceptions, one for a touchdown, in 14 games. But, because of a nagging knee injury, he was not the same player that the Steelers saw during their 2005 run to the Super Bowl.

Rather than pay him the $6 million he was scheduled to make in 2007, the Steelers released him

But, as Tomlin soon discovered, Porter's loss was the Steelers' gain.

"There was a guy that came in my office that was ready to prove that he was capable of [playing] 900 to 1,000 snaps a year," Tomlin said. "His name was James Harrison. I think if we all knew what James Harrison was capable of, he would have played more than he did before 2007."

Nobody is expecting Jason Worilds to be James Harrison. But, ready or not, he is the heir apparent at right outside linebacker to Harrison, a five-time Pro Bowl selection who was released two weeks with two years remaining on his contract.

Worilds was a No. 2 draft choice in 2009 who has started 10 games and has 10 sacks in three seasons. But Harrison's stats were even more nondescript when he replaced Porter as the starter at right outside linebacker -- eight starts and four sacks in three seasons.

"I believe that Jason Worilds is chomping at the bit to prove he is capable of being that," Tomlin said during a break at the NFL owners meetings that began Monday at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa. "We will see what Worilds is capable of doing."

Then he added with a laugh, "No pressure."

Tomlin's point, though, is well-founded: You never know what can happen when a player gets to emerge from a considerable shadow. And Harrison certainly cast that in his six years as a dominating presence in the Steelers defense.

"But that's what this is," Tomlin said. "That's what change does. It provides opportunities for guys to ascend and take advantage of opportunities, and to carve out a niche or a name for themselves. I think that these competitors are challenged by that or encouraged by those opportunities that change presents."

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