Philadelphia Eagles: The curious case of Paul Worrilow

Since being released by the Philadelphia Eagles on August 18th, Paul Worrilow has had one of the weirder NFL-related weeks in recent memory.

Has anyone had a more interesting week than Paul Worrilow?

After being waived by the Philadelphia Eagles on August 18th, roughly 14 months removed from suffering an ACL tear that wiped away his chances of earning a starting spot at weakside linebacker, Worrilow signed a one-year contract to take his talents to Baltimore to join a Ravens squad looking for some more depth on the inside.

Case closed, right? Hardly.

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While the decision to sign with John Harbaugh‘s squad is a bit serendipitous, as the Ravens had joint practices with the Eagles all week in the lead up to their Week 3 preseason contest, what happened next was almost impossible to predict.

One day removed from his official signing on August 24th, news broke that Worrilow had decided to retire from the NFL at the age of 29 to spend time with his pregnant wife.

Now sure, occasionally a player’s intentions can get misconstrued, but when NFL Network inside Ian Rapoport officially reports the news, it’s usually as close to a sure thing as once can find.

Which is why what happened next is so confusing.

Hours after Worrilow’s intentions were made clear, it was then reported that the Ravens were instead going to terminate their newest linebacker’s contract instead of placing him on their retired players list.

Okay, sure, but the story changed yet again.

Even more hours later the story finally settled on what appears to be its most consistent narrative: the veteran linebacker has requested his release to focus on the birth of his third daughter.

In conversation with the New Journal (as per Delaware Online), Worrilow stated “I will revisit my career in a few weeks once she is born, but not before that. Difficult decision, but definitely necessary.”

Weird stuff.

While the ball is now firmly in the Ravens’ court, as the team could opt to release Worrilow outright, place him on the retired players list, or place him on leave, it seems increasingly unlikely that the Delaware native will be on an NFL roster come Week 1, with his long-term football-playing future very much up in the air.

Conversely, if the Ravens do opt to release Worrilow, it’s possible he could return to the Eagles later this season, especially if the team were to suffer a long-term injury in their linebacking corp.

Though Howie Roseman and company appear very confident going into the regular season with Nigel Bradham, Kamu Grugier-Hill, and Zach Brown as starters Nathan Gerry and L.J. Fort locked into crucial reserve rolls, and the dynamic duo of T.J. Edwards and Alex Singleton competing for a bottom-of-the-roster spot, a single play could shift that entire linebacking hierarchy into disarray and require an outside addition to keep things copacetic in the regular season.

The Eagles were high enough on the Delaware Valley native to sign him to a second one-year deal after missing the entirety of the 2018 season, so clearly that door is not completely closed.

So yeah, in a weird twist of fate, the Paul Worrilow-saga may not be over after all, and he could very well end up back with the Philadelphia Eagle depending on how the next few weeks turn out. What a weird week.