Harrison Released

Its been a while but with free agency and the draft looming, its time to look past our horribly painful season and move forward. This leads me to my first post of the new fiscal football year. The Steelers have released James Harrison.

Now, I understand that Steeler fans are holding onto the past and will always remember his dominating years from 2007 to 2010 but its time to move on. James was a dominating force for four seasons totalling 45 sacks, 4 interceptions, 25 forced fumbles while recovering six. But that was what seems like ages ago.

Over the last two seasons he has been extremely quiet mustering only 15 sacks and four forced fumbles. That is a huge difference over his previous two seasons. In those years he had 20.5 sacks with 11 forced fumbles and three recoveries. Does his current play deserve the money he was making?

The Steelers have always been a team that lets its aging veterans go. They don't have the same tendencies that we do as fans. They don't hold onto the past and feel it warrants the future. Lets face it SteelerNation, this is a game of not only dollars and cents, but what have you done for me lately.

Now, I'm not saying I won't miss those dominating years of Silver-back, but we have another gem sitting on our roster waiting for a chance. In the last two seasons, Jason Worilds has started ten games while palying in 28 total. In those games he put up eight sacks, two forced fumbles and a defended pass. This is his chance to solidify himself as a solid veteran starter just like Harrison did with the exit Clark Haggans.

I'm not saying that JH is overrated or a poor fit in our defense now, what I'm saying is that money isn't woth the production. I love Harrison and I always will. I hope he catches on somewhere and finishes his career strong.