The Steelers addressed perhaps their most urgent and pressing need in the first round of the 2013 Draft when they selected Jarvis Jones, a pass-rushing specialist from Georgia.
Now, it doesn't take Bill Walsh to figure out how this little puzzle fits together. James Harrison is gone, and Jason Worilds is the incumbent at the ROLB position now. And behind him… is a whole lot of nothing. Assuming LaMarr Woodley can get back to form and hold down the left side (and that's a big assumption), there's still the question of whether Worilds can excel at the position and whether he can even stay healthy.
Enter Jarvis Jones. The coaching staff will say it's the incumbent's job to lose, as they always do, but that just isn't true. This is Jarvis Jones' spot. They can't afford to try and scrape by with Worilds for a while and toss Jones in mid-season if it doesn't work. He needs to be in there day 1, getting the reps and building chemistry with the rest of the defense.
Normally I'm all for letting rookies sit for a year or so before letting them blossom in their own time (hey Lawrence Timmons), but not in this case. Dick LeBeau's defense is built around one concept: Rush the quarterback. Everything comes down to getting the QB on the ground. The zone blitz was developed to hit quarterbacks without compromising coverage. The defensive line is there to open lanes for linebackers to hit quarterbacks. If you don't have an edge rusher that can put the passer on the ground, that defense doesn't work. If you give an NFL quarterback time to think, he will pick apart zone coverage.
Jarvis Jones has to be that blind side rusher. The Steelers' past few offseasons and relatively weak drafts have left no room for error with this year's picks. The right outside linebacker is the most important player on the defense and with the lack of depth at the position, it's important that Jones work his way into the starting lineup as soon as possible.
That isn't to say that anything should be handed to him. If Jason Worilds outworks him and keeps that spot through training camp and preseason, then Worilds should be rewarded for it. However, I'm simply not convinced he can be a long term answer at that position. Given what the Steelers have invested in Jones, he needs to become the premiere player on the defense for the forseeable future. Only he can make sure that happens.
