Rookie defensive lineman Jerel Worthy should add juice to the pass rush
GREEN BAY- While it’s too soon to know just how effective rookie Jerel Worthy will be as a nickel pass rusher this season, it’s not too soon to know he’ll be better than the players who filled that role a year ago.
Jarius Wynn, C.J. Wilson and Mike Neal lined up next to B.J. Raji at one time or another in 2011, and all were incredibly ineffective when it came to harassing the quarterback. Wynn posted one pressure every 47 snaps. That’s not good, but it’s Reggie White-like when compared to Wilson and Neal. The former averaged one pressure every 113 snaps and the latter one every 79. For comparison’s sake, Cullen Jenkins averaged one pressure every 16 snaps during his final season with the Packers in 2010.
Wynn and Wilson try like heck, but they simply don’t possess the physical skills to get after the quarterback. Worthy does. He’s athletic enough to win with quickness and he’s strong enough to win with power. There were times when he absolutely dominated Big 10 offensive linemen. And while he won’t dominate NFL linemen, he’s going to succeed more often than he fails. That’ll be a welcome change.
Worthy is a beast. Big, strong and fast. He was easily the most impressive player on defense last night. He might not get a lot of sacks this year himself but his presence should do wonders for the defense as a whole.
Worthy is a coach killer. Do you really want him on the field in a key situation late in a playoff game when we need a stop? I can just see him jumping offside and paving the way to a late second loss.
The NFL consists of players with potential. Not a Worthy fan. Can’t trust players like him. Sure, it’ll be great getting an occasional wow play out of him, but his ceiling to negatively impact a game seems too high for my tastes. The bust potential with this guy is extremely high.
Give me a guy like Mike Daniels as limited as he is in size any day. Daniels seems more the willing and winning player of the two.
With Worthy im gonna be ok with an offsides penalty every once in a while, just like im ok with Charles Woodson getting illegal contact or defensive holding penalties from time to time. Sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad.
The way GBs coaches harp on these guys about pre snap penalties, it may take a little while but they will eventually break him of that habit.
As for Mike Daniels, im very high on him too but he presents a different problem and thats the ability to stay healthy which has already reared its ugly head. Worthy may lack a little discipline but thats coachable, staying healthy and available is not.