After having Mike Wallace spurn a similar offer, the Steelers signed wide receiver Antonio Brown to a five-year, $42-million contract extension on Friday.
What does this mean for Wallace?
It means that his days with the Steelers are numbered.
After giving Brown a big deal, the Steelers aren't likely to hand out another one at the same position.
So his options now are to report to camp, sign his tender and hope he has another big season, or hold out until there are six games left in the season, report, and become a free agent at the end of the year, hoping that somebody will make him a big offer.
He's got a much better chance of getting a big deal next season if he goes out and tears it up this season than he does if he doesn't play.
Brown's contract also likely means that the Steelers won't use the franchise tag on Wallace, either.
9 comments:
Wallace will get a huge offer regardless. Teams are going to forget that he's the fastest guy on the field.
All I can think is that Wallace must have been really arrogant or disrespectful in negotiations. He must have done more than politely refuse their offer to get this kind of response. The Steelers could have waited to sign Brown until the end of camp. Instead they decided to forget about Wallace. Something must have made them do that.
I don't think this means Wallace is gone. Brown's contract isn't huge. The guaranteed money is slightly north of 9 million. He doesn't even have a real cap hit until 2014. His base salary this year is around 500k, which when coupled with his signing bonus still only accounts for a little over 2 million as a cap hit this year.
Wallace can still sign, whether he is willing to is what matters. Signing Brown doesn't really affect it except maybe slightly in the negotiations but I'm even reluctant to admit that the Steelers would sign Antonio Brown to an extension primarily to mess with Wallace. The timing is obvious, sure, but his contract is not a prohibitive factor.
To sign both Wallace AND Brown to such large contracts would tie up an awful lot of salary cap money on the wide receiver position which isn't likely given the Steeler's reluctance to overspend on this position in the past. I'm surprised by this move which I believe relegates Wallace to the initial tender offer this season and free agency next season (highly unlikely they tag him). Too bad, I really liked the tandem and hoped to follow their combined exploits over the next several years.
I don't know about this. It reminds me of when Faneca was being a malcontent so they gave Kendall Simmons a new deal instead.
Now, I think Brown is a better player than Simmons. However, considering they have Brown's rights through 2013 and he only really produced for half a season, I question the timing of extending him now.
On the surface, it looks like the motivation for Brown's new deal was to send a big "F.U." to Mike Wallace as much as anything else. You don't want your organization making emotional decisions like that.
I hope that's not the case, and that the Brown deal was completely unrelated to the Wallace situation. I just have my doubts.
Apparently Bouchette is claiming the Steelers will look into the possibility of trading Wallace.
I imagine a trade for picks is more likely? We don't really have alot of cap space to absorb a high salary guy.
Wallace for Haloti Gnata?? (just kidding)
i feel like they had to sign brown now. they would lose leverage with brown if wallace was gone, or everyone knew he was going to be gone. but by signing brown now, they can negotiate a better deal.
not to mention sending the message that the steelers will reward those who cooperate.
As much as I would have loved to see Wallace as a lifetime Steeler, I think the organization did the right thing.
In any case, MW's best asset is speed, and that is something that has a very short shelf-life and prone to loss due to injury.
At this point, I am sure the team is looking to getting as much value out of MW for 2012 as possible, whether that is 10 games or trade for a high rounder. Is it too late to reduce his $2.7m tender?
I find it totally disgusting the amounts of monies players get in general. And 2.7M is not enough? I hope they let him go and find someone who will be twice as good and twice the competitor as he is to show him and all that they can't be held ransom for such terribly exorbitant amounts.
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