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Saturday, March 07, 2009

Smith signs with Green Bay

Safety Anthony Smith signed a free agent deal with the Green Bay Packers, reuniting him with former Steelers secondary coach Darren Perry.

Perry was the Steelers' secondary coach in 2006 when Smith was selected by the team in the third round.

He was one of the few defensive coaches new head coach Mike Tomlin didn't keep from Bill Cowher's staff, eventually landing a similar job in Green Bay.

Smith often showed promise with the Steelers but also made his share of boneheaded mistakes, landing him in Tomlin's dog house.

The team finally decided not to tender him an offer this year as a restricted free agent.

© According to ProFootballTalk.com, cornerback Bryant McFadden is close to making a decision about where he'll sign.

The site claims the Steelers cornerback will choose between Pittsburgh, Arizona, Miami and Philadelphia.

It was known that Arizona and Miami were interested, but Philadelphia is a newcomer if that's the case.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I admit that things are not always as they seem, but Phi already has Sheldon Brown and Asante Samuel at cb. I would be surprised if they offerred Mcfadden big money to come and be their #2b or #3 cb.

I guess the same could be said about Pitt as Gay and Mcfadden were sharing time at the end of last season. The difference though is that Gay is still cheap, and Ike actually isn't making that much money, relatively speaking.

Samuel is making mega money and Brown is making approx 5 mil/yr. If they brought in Mcfadden, then they probably would have to get rid of Brown, either by trade or releasing him. Releasing him would probably incur some amount of dead money against the cap, in addition to what they'd be paying Mcfadden.

Anonymous said...

What the heck is going on? The Patriots are aggressively making moves to get better, and we're busy sitting on our hands and re-signing our own crappy O-linemen.

I guess we can look forward to another 5 years of getting our ass kicked by them.

Ben said...

You cannot be serious, Steve. This team just won two Super Bowls in four years, and you're questioning how they operate? They've proven year in and year out that it's better to build through the draft than by throwing big money at free agents. They've earned the benefit of the doubt, at the very least.

We've got some big names on our own roster to re-sign, namely James Harrison.

I guess we can look forward to another 5 years of going to the playoffs and winning Super Bowls.

Anonymous said...

Dale,

What do you think about the decision to non-tender Smith. Would the Pack have given up a third for Smith? I kind of liked the idea of tendering him and giving him one more year or getting the pick, but I understand the cap issues. It is great to root for a team where small details like this are the only concern.

To the poster above - the Eagles made a run at Springs, and lost out to the Pats. I could see them going after McFadden, although it would make no sense.

Dale Lolley said...

I guarantee they weren't offering a broken-down Springs the kind of money they'd have to offer McFadden.

As for the Patriots, I'm pretty sure the Steelers thrashed them last year. I'm also pretty sure the Steelers have won two Super Bowls since the Patriots won their last one.

Dale Lolley said...

As for the Green Bay question, no, I don't think the Packers would have given up a third for Smith. Then again, I don't have any knowledge of the inner workings of that team.

Anonymous said...

Dale you are a simply the only sports writer I like. Most are either coming from some odd place (ala Ron Cook) or arrogant (Peter King) or just boring.
Love your reporting and keep it up.
You are a much better sports writer than a baseball player.

Dale Lolley said...

Come on, I was a heck of a baseball player - I beat my kids in Wii Baseball all the time.

Ben said...

Ron Cook fell into immediate and permanent disfavor with me when he tried to make the case that Ed Reed is a better safety than Troy Polamalu -- right before the AFC Championship.

Not only was he clearly proven to be incorrect, but he lost a great deal of my respect by trying to incite controversy just before a huge game.

I value sports writers who do their best to find the hot stories, not create them themselves.