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3 former Steelers players who are still surprisingly free agents

By Cody Williams

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - NOVEMBER 28: Myles Jack #51 of the Pittsburgh Steelers warms up prior to the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 28, 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - NOVEMBER 28: Myles Jack #51 of the Pittsburgh Steelers warms up prior to the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on November 28, 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
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Chris Wormley, Pittsburgh Steelers
Chris Wormley, Pittsburgh Steelers. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

2. Chris Wormley, DL

An early third-round pick in 2017 by the rival Baltimore Ravens, Chris Wormley first came to the Steelers in the 2020 season and has spent the last three years in Pittsburgh.

Outside of his 7.0-sack season in 2021, though, we haven’t seen Wormley bring much in the way of pass rush as he’s only accrued 1.5 sacks combined in 2020 and 2022 over 26 games. However, that doesn’t mean he’s been invaluable.

Wormley graded out as an above-average run defender a season ago and has for much of his career. Even playing under 400 snaps on the year, he managed 29 combined tackles along with three tackles for loss on the year as well. He’s a run-stuffer who has played that role extremely well.

Unfortunately for the veteran defensive lineman, he suffered a knee injury at the end of last season which was eventually revealed to be a torn ACL that needed to be repaired. But given that he’s undergone that surgery and is still only 29 years old, you’d think that there would be some landing spot for him in free agency, especially on a cheap multi-year deal.

In all likelihood, the aforementioned ACL tear and subsequent surgery in December 2022 are almost surely the reason that Wormley hasn’t found a new team yet as there’s no guarantee he’ll play at all this year and, if he does, it’ll be late in the year and he could be signed by a team then. Having said that, if a team had a need for a run-stuffer on the D-line, landing him on a cheap deal to hopefully have in later in the season would make sense, which is why it’s still somewhat surprising that he’s not yet been signed.

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