Pittsburgh Steelers franchise line-backer LaMarr Woodley – NFL Update
The Pittsburgh Steelers have announced that line-backer LaMarr Woodley has signed their offer to franchise him for the 2011 National Football League season.
Woodley was the first player to sign a tender since the National Football League Players Association is saying that those franchise tags are not and will not be valid until there is a new collective bargaining agreement in place.
After Woodley, Ryan Kalil of the Carolina Panthers, Marcedes Lewis of the Jacksonville Jaguars and David Harris of the New York Jets all signed their franchise tenders.
This year, the 26-year-old line-backer made $550,000. This was the final year of the four year contract he got in his rookie year. But next year, he will earn more money. About $9,450,000 more! His position and franchise tag will pay him about $10 million
for the 2011 season, if there is one. The team could then choose to sign him to a long term contract at that point as well.
Woodley has had 50 tackles, ten sacks and two interceptions for 22 yards during the 2010 season. He has had three stuffs for 20 yards, three forced fumbles, five passes blocked and one of his interceptions was returned for a touch-down.
He was selected into the 2010 Pro Bowl and is the only player to have at least one sack in six straight post-season games in NFL history. He has 11 sacks in seven playoff games including two in each of his first four post-season games, which is another record.
Woodley has the most sacks in his first four seasons in Steelers’ history with 39, which is much more than second place Joey Porter has with 30.5.
In the 2010 post-season, he has had 10 tackles, three sacks and one stuff for three yards, as well as a defended pass. His best performance of the season came in Week 14 against the Cincinnati Bengals, as Woodley had five tackles, all of which were solo,
as well as two sacks and one interception that he returned 14 yards for a touch-down, the first of his career.
When the six foot two, 265 pound line-backer came out of high school, he was rated as the number 14 player in the entire country. Woodley was offered a chance to play for almost every university in the country and ultimately decided to join the Wolverines
at the University of Michigan. He was named defensive captain and racked up 12 sacks in his senior year, earned the Lombardi Award for being the best line-man, offensive or defensive, in the entire country. He had a slogan started after him saying “Guns don’t
kill people. LaMarr Woodley kills people” because of the damage that he did to quarter-backs Bryan Cupito and Drew Stanton.
He was drafted 46th overall in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Steelers.
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