1) Introduction: Jerel Worthy was considered to be a pleasant surprise to be there for the Packers to select in round two of last year’s draft. The former Spartan, who left college early, was looked upon to bring some “juice” to the Packers’ inside pass rush.
2) Profile:
Jerel Worthy
- Age: 22
- Born: 04/28/1990, in Huber Heights, OH
- Height: 6’2″
- Weight: 304
- College: Michigan State
- Rookie Year: 2012
- NFL Experience: 0 years
3) Expectations coming into the season: As a high round draft pick, Worthy was expected to contribute immediately, but expectations were tempered with Worthy’s history of jumping offsides, which while often allowed him to crash through offensive lines before the linemen got set also lead to a lot of encroachment and offsides penalties. It was expected that Worthy would probably get more penalties than fast starts against superior NFL caliber linemen but hopefully, he would adjust to the NFL and start to make some progress as a viable pass rushing threat.
4) Player’s highlights/low-lights: Worthy’s best game was probably week 2 against the Bears where he recorded his first career sack, 2 tackles and 3 offensive negative plays. His lowlight was immediately afterwards in week 3 against the Seahawks where played over 50% of the defensive snaps but posted no stats other than a penalty.
5) Player’s contribution to the overall team success: Worthy was wildly inconsistent so it’s hard to say how much he contributed. He often peak and dip in his play in the same game. Overall, that inconsistency was probably his own undoing as coaches were unsure of what type of player they would see. Luckily, Worthy did who his talent and presuming he recovers well from his injury and settles down a bit, Worthy can become a dominant player for the Packers
6) Player’s contributions in the playoffs: Worthy injured his knee in week 17 against the Vikings and was ruled out and then placed on IR shortly afterwards. Worthy was not active for either playoff game.
Season Report Card:
(C) Level of expectations met during the season
(C-) Contributions to team’s overall success.
(N/A) Contributions to team during the playoffs
Overall Grade: C-
——————Thomas Hobbes is a staff writer for Jersey Al’s AllGreenBayPackers.com.
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I would give Worthy a D. Have to ask what was expected of him or any player. What was expected of Worthy? Imo to provide some pass rush and play good vs the run. Did he meet those expectations? I would say he certainly didnt even to a satisfactory level. That means he has to get s D. His expectations and Picketts were different so you don’t judge by exactly the same criteria.
PFF rated as one of the worst 3-4 DE in the league this year. I understand why they drafted But still hate the pick; Worthy was picked to be a one-gap pentrator on passing downs. Help replace Cullen Jenkins pash rush in case Neal went to IR again. However,in college the rap against him was that his motor and attitude were suspect. Should have taken RB Lamar Miller or LB Zach Brown at that spot.
Whats up w/ the Tramon Williams lead in? Need to get that fixed. Kinda losing credibility on the articles. Grades can be more consistent and then this… Don’t mean to be too critical, but it doesn’t help your cred as a writer from the readers perspective.
Anyone can make a mistake and the quality control person (me) didn’t have a chance to check.
I don’t agree with your complaint about consistency. You may not have liked Thomas’ grade on Pickett, but looking at his grades for the DL group as a whole, they are consistent.
Well its not just the Pickett grade, but Worthy’s as well. Like I said, giving perspective from a readers POV. Like it or not I know I’m not the only that feels that way.
has nothing to do with liking it or not, I welcome (almost) all comments. You may not agree with the actual grades, but in terms of who should get higher and lower grades relative to each other, I think they have been consistent. And we’re just getting started. Let’s see how it looks when we’re twenty-deep in evals. Each writer will be taking different position groups here, so we’ll see how that shakes out…
Most rookies come into this league and have a hard time for the first year. Hard to give a grade for not only a rookie, but one who’s season was cut short by an ACL. Which might render 2013 as an incomplete as well.
What a 2nd round disappointment. Rough rookie season and an very unfortunate injury that will set him back roughly a year 🙁
To me Worthy probably should receive either a D or an incomplete, due to his injury. Overall, I think that he was a disappointment even for a rookie. He was not usually a factor in games and while he made a few plays they were not enough to display whatever upside potential he may have.
Thanks, Since ’61
Worthy is a massive bust. TT’s inability to draft defensive lineman is the main reason why the Super Bowl Packers of 2010 have been passed up by 5-7 other teams. Most Big Ten D linemen stink in the pros. The fact is 80% of first through third round selections of Big Ten D-linemen since 2000 have been a bust. For every JJ Watt there are plenty of Jerel Worthys, Erasmus James and Vern Gholstons.