Skip to content

Young Money

Clock Ticking On Mike Wallace

  • by

Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock.

Sorry for opening with such a corny line but in this case it’s particularly apt. The Pittsburgh Steelers followed through on their vow not to use their Franchise tag on All Pro receiver Mike Wallace. Instead they tendered him an offer, making him a restricted free agent. What this means is one of three things will happen when the NFL’s free agency period kicks off at 4:00 ET next Tuesday.

Wallace may sign the one year offer for $2.75 million. Or another team may offer him a bigger contract, which the Steelers have an option to match. If they decide to match, the Steelers keep Wallace and the other team is S.O.L. If the Steelers decline to match, Wallace goes to that team with Pittsburgh receiving their first round draft pick as compensation.

Wallace isn’t going to sign that tender until free agency is over. He no doubt feels he’s worth more than what the Steelers have offered and he’s right. To give you a rough idea where the bar is for a young up-and-coming wide receiver, let’s look at the Buffalo Bills. They recently re-signed Stevie Johnson to a five year $36 million deal. NFL fans know Johnson as the dude who writes silly messages on his undershirt with a sharpie. Steeler Nation remembers him as the putz who dropped the game-winning touchdown pass in overtime, then blamed God for his butterfingers. In either case, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t view Wallace as the far better receiver.
Read More »Clock Ticking On Mike Wallace

Steelers Prepared To Let Mike Wallace Walk?

  • by

Our long national nightmare is over. Ben Roethlisberger and Todd Haley have spoken!

One can only speculate what they said.  It appears no steel chairs were involved so that’s good. Of course, we’ll see how cordial they remain after Ben holds on to the ball for twenty-five minutes and takes a drive killing sack only to be greeted on the sideline by Haley threatening to turn his boot sideways and stick it straight up his candy-ass. For now, however, all is good in Steeler Nation.

Although it may not be for long. The Pittsburgh Steelers announced yet another deal restructuring, this time with offensive tackle Willie Colon. The overpaid fatass’s new deal reduces his cap hit by roughly half, which brings the Steelers ever so closer to being under the salary cap. As has been discussed, the Steelers went into this off-season roughly $25 million over the cap and had to clear that salary by the start of the 2012 NFL season in early March. With Colon’s reworked contract, the team is now only around $8 million over.

Hines Ward is due $4 million next season. Aaron Smith is $2 million still on the books. Useless Chris Kemoeatu, who must have pictures of Deuce dressed like a sheep at Pittsburgh’s annual Furry Convention to still be on this team, is due a whopping $3.5 million. And then we have aging James Farrior, who is scheduled to make $3 million next season. So there are plenty of cuts left to make to get under the cap.

Cutting all of those players would get the Steelers right under the cap with just about enough room left to sign this year’s crop of draft picks. It doesn’t leave in room to sign any free agents. And, more importantly, it doesn’t take into account any contract extensions they may wish to dole out. And therein lies the problem.
Read More »Steelers Prepared To Let Mike Wallace Walk?

The Future Has Arrived For Pittsburgh Steelers

  • by

Bravo, Steeler Nation.

The recent rise and fall of Aaron Smith combined with CBS repeatedly cutting to Hines Ward standing on the sideline being the NFL’s highest paid cheerleader (to his credit, he probably dances better than most of them even though his ass doesn’t look nearly as good in a tiny skirt) has gotten me to thinking. Thinking about the future. A future that doesn’t include Hines or James Farrior or several other players who were a huge part of the Pittsburgh Steelers run as one of the most dominant teams of the past decade.

I can’t help but be reminded of Rod Woodson. A 2009 Hall of Famer, Woodson was one of the best defensive backs to ever play the game. He possessed unbelievable speed for a man his size, routinely baiting quarterbacks by letting wide receivers run past him only to turn on the jets and close on the receiver when he saw the ball in the air. In 1995, Barry Sanders juked his ACL off his knee and when he returned the following year, he didn’t have that same freaky closing speed. After watching him repeatedly get beaten on deep bombs, the Steelers thought his career was on a downhill slide and asked him to take a pay cut and move to safety, both of which he allegedly refused. While the Rooneys and Woodson eventually buried the hatchet, at the time this resulted in a divorce so ugly it would’ve made Mel Gibson wince.
Read More »The Future Has Arrived For Pittsburgh Steelers