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Chris Wormley is coming to Steelers from Ravens exactly as advertised

Tim Benz
| Thursday, April 2, 2020 8:44 a.m.
AP
Baltimore Ravens nose tackle Chris Wormley looks on during a preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Aug. 8, 2019, in Baltimore.

Since NFL free agency started, we’ve tried to drill down for a little extra insight on each of the new players.

• We learned Stefen Wisniewski may have been an even more positive on-field addition to the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl run than originally thought.

• Based on his time in Indianapolis and Detroit, we learned that Eric Ebron’s off-field attitude may be more of a challenge than what the Steelers may have estimated.

• And we’ve learned that new fullback Derek Watt may already be planting a seed to get his oldest brother J.J. to join him and T.J. in Pittsburgh someday after he leaves Houston.

When it came to new defensive lineman Chris Wormley, I turned to Jeremy Conn of 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore for Thursday’s podcast. He covers the Ravens and hosts a show in Maryland. I’ve spoken with Jeremy on the air many times, and, in this podcast, I was trying to mine for some sort of extra nugget about Wormley.

Wormley is the defensive end the Steelers acquired via trade with the Baltimore Ravens for a 2021 fifth-round pick on March 20.

Sorry folks. I’ve got nothin’.

It sounds to me like Chris Wormley is exactly as advertised. Mainly in a good way.

No extra dirt. No hidden angle. No follow-up story. He’s 100% the guy you think the Steelers are getting.

Come to think of it, maybe in today’s NFL, a simple trade involving a solid player who can be taken at face value is a story in and of itself.

Since Wormley was acquired by the Steelers, he has been billed as a steady, backup defensive lineman who should slot in well with Tyson Alualu behind Stephon Tuitt and Cameron Heyward.

The book on Wormley is that he’s good, not great. A solid contributor to help expand the rotation of the Steelers defensive front. He’s likely not going to be the kind of guy who can eat up snaps at nose tackle like Javon Hargrave did. But, being a little taller (6-foot-5) and leaner (298 pounds), he should be able to get upfield and aid the pass rush by collapsing the pocket from the inside.

In other words, what you see is what you get.

I certainly got the impression from Conn that he felt that’s what the Steelers were getting.

“Fans will watch him, and he’ll pop in camp and in preseason,” Conn said. “He’s a guy who can get some pressure up front. He’s solid against the run. Not spectacular. Another depth piece. A rotation piece. He doesn’t hurt you when he is in there. Solid value for what was given up to get him.”

I like what I saw of Wormley in Baltimore and what I remember seeing of him at Michigan. He appears to be the kind of player who was just caught up in a numbers game with the Ravens after they franchise tagged Matthew Judon and acquired Calais Campbell and Michael Brockers a few days prior to the trade.

Of course, the Brockers signing fell apart thanks to a medical issue (ankle). So the Ravens scooped up Derek Wolfe instead.

Otherwise, perhaps Wormley would’ve wound up with a starting gig in Baltimore had the Steelers not agreed to the trade.

“Chris is somebody we were very interested in coming out of the University of Michigan,” general manager Kevin Colbert said Wednesday. “We liked Chris a lot. He has the prototypical 3-4 defensive end body type. He’s a 300-pounder who can run. And he has played in a similar scheme.”

So there you have it. The only thing out of the ordinary about Wormley is that he is such a clear-cut fit for a need with the Steelers. The only real angle is that it may be a surprise that the Ravens were willing to trade him here.

In this podcast, Conn talks to us about why the Ravens were willing to make the trade, the disappointment surrounding the playoffs last year, and where quarterback Lamar Jackson’s game is heading into Year 3.

Listen: Tim Benz and Baltimore radio host Jeremy Conn discuss what type of player the Steelers got in Chris Wormley


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