Anyone else surprised by our free agency action?

I know a lot of you just laughed at that headline... but SERIOUSLY! The fact that we never sign free agents and the fact that we're seriously hurting on cap room right now made me think Gay was probably out first and last signing that I'd heard of...

So far we've signed Foote, Plaxico, Gradkowski, Gay, Foster.

We're apparently interested in Beanie Wells, Kellen Davis, and Victor Butler. We tried to sign Lorenzo Alexander.

 

Well I sorta always consider true FA signings ones that come from totally outside the franchise. So really I would only say we've signed 2 well known guys. But I can see what you're saying and a FA is a FA. I just hope we never get to the point that we think we need to pick up all the sorta "big" names I guess.

 

and TE/FB David Johnson to a 1 yr deal

 

we are signing castoff role players, while getting rid of several playmakers. harrison,lewis,mendy,wallace. then guys not nescessarily playmakers,leftwich,johnson,mundy,colon,legursky,starks,hampton. then bringing back guys that were never really difference makers that we could have taken or left in foster and foote and DJ.

warren was a good re-sign. so was sanders. so was gay.

plax???????? we went from young money to old money real quick. plax, cotchery, sanders, brown.

we are giving up talent and signing bodies basicly.

all the one year guys too. sanders,dwyer,redman,batch,plax,warren. so we will have holes next year at alot of key offensive positions. plus guys that are FA's next year, clark,pouncey,hood,carter,keisel,and whomever else.

what we are bringing in doesn't stregnthen this team much, as far as the future looking up,compared to what we will lose. i'm not seeing us building a winner this way, just cheap labor and putting bodies in holes.

 

I think the Plax signing was better than bringing back Gay..now Ben has that big receiver in an offense that doesn't really fit a deep threat receiver..Everything is more dump and run in the Haley system..this will save Ben too since he won't have to wait for the deep play to develop. With Plax in there they'll be more quick Bang, Bang plays.

 

it also makes life easier on defenses. makes us have to make alot more 3rd down plays. takes away our big strike capability. puts more pressure on our weakend defense in close games caused by this type of offense. it didn't save ben last year. plax is 35 years old, hardly a difference maker anymore. he's tall and thats it. gay played better then most people let on for us.

 

I agree we "got rid" of Harrison, but Wallace, Mendy and Lewis are UFA. Wallace getting $12M/yr...come on, we wer never going to pay that. I'd rather we let him walk and draft a replacement then pay such a crippling contract.

 

Surprised no....disappointed...I little.

Honestly...there were only a handful of guys that even had my interest and most were gone day one....Gay and DJ were not on that list...I like Plax...as he was my 1B.....my 1A you ask....Randy Moss....still has the speed and leaping ability...draws the double team....49ers used him to open up everyone else.

I would like to get Ramses Barden in at this point

Brown, Sanders, Cotch, Burress, and Barden.


HACK

 

i really don't see us touching another vet at wr now hack. i think a draft pick will be wr 5.

 

The one FA move that surprised me is not the resigning of Lewis. I honestly thought the reason we restructured woodley right before FA was going to be to resign Lewis and our role players for depth such as Foote. But with our interest in others like Butler and what not, are we just letting lewis walk and going with Ike, Gay, and Allen? I figured we'd resign lewis and Ike would more than likely be gone after this season. I guess there is still time for us to get a deal done but Idk where we are headed with this one.

 

Hopefully, the plan to let Lewis go walkabout and see if the grass is greener works out. Hopefully the Steelers give a great, but fair, counteroffer. Maybe he agrees that this is the best organization in football.

Besides--the longer he takes to smell the roses, the smaller his market gets. It seems that the FA DB's are finding homes today. Take your time, and come on home.

 

NE are doing pretty good without a deep threat, 90% of their plays are simialr to what Haley does.. (quick slants.) How many times did Ben and Wallace connect with the deep ball last season, either Ben was off target or Wallace dropped them. I say it's a waste of a down. I don't think we'll have to worry about Ben trying to throw one for 50yards when we only need 1 yard for the first down.

 

i guess the roses where still smelling good in New Orleans.

 

I like Barden as the "next" Plaxico....Plax is here on the year to year plan....groom him behind Plax

I also like Marquis Goodwin as a return man runs good routes and is Wallace fast to stretch the field...

HACK

 

The reason that the system works in NE and now in Denver (who throws longer as well) is that the QB reads the defense and attacks the weakness. The gameplan NE uses is to expose the things they know you don't do well.

 

its easy for NE to attack what other teams dont do well when their allowed to cheat.

 

Come on, man. You're giving the Fins too much credit. They ACTUALLY paid him $13 million a year! You see now why the Dolphins haven't won a Super Bowl since the early 70s? Don Shula must be rolling over in his grave. At least he would be if he were in a grave.

 

His 2014 cap hit is something like 17 million. I loved the speed that Wallace brought to the table, but he is by no means a complete receiver. He doesn't give much effort, is afraid to take a hit, and can't block to save his life. Losing his speed will hurt a little, but try not to forget that Sanders and Brown aren't exactly slow. In fact Sanders is actually slightly faster than Brown.

 

It absolutely baffles me that the Dolphins would risk so much on a player that has one elite feature, SPEED. If Wallace sustains any kind of leg injury (knee, ankle, hamstring, groin, calf, etc.) which slows him down, he is an average receiver at best. The word STUPIDITY comes to mind when I think about this signing.

 

Why would we be surprised this is what the Steelers do every year in free agency they never make the splashy signings, they prefer role players at bargain contracts and they will re-sign some of their own free agents.

 

The phrase "better them than us" also sounds very relevant here!

 

Here we go again. I can't believe you think the Dolphins overpaid Wallace. He is going to completely change their offense and bring several new dimensions to... lol just kidding. They are complete morons. And you know I like Wallace. But good lord...

 

Owwwch... my head hurts! I will barely recognize our team, come next season!!!...
While all of that is true, and I am a wee bit concerned with all the talent we lost...
How well did we do when they were all here?
8-8....
Hence Colbert`s fair warning...
"We are not married to any of these guys"...
I`m havin blind faith/ drinkin the kool-aid...
Otherwise, I would be REALLY worried right now, not just a little nervous...
I used to have a lot of faith in our backups.
This season, not so much.
I just hope I am wrong.
Obviously, the guys we had, didn`t get it done. Period.

 

I'm not surprised at all, but i am disappointed.

We were an 8-8 team last year and even though i agreed with letting most of our free agents go (except Keenan), we have lost some talent that needed to be replaced. At this point we are a much worse team than last season. Now i know the offseason is far from over but at this point the roster doesn't look good.

Colbert made all of those comments about how were an 8-8 team so we would be silly to not make changes and how when we were 12-4 the 2 years before we became a little mezmorized and were reluctant to make changes, but now roster was in need of big changes. Here we are a few days into the new season and really nothing has been made besides bringing back the same people and letting some of the others walk with no real additions to the roster. It scares me that he felt this way but yet still was reluctant to make any changes.

Now i know the most fans on here will say thats not the Steelers way and the Steelers are a top organization and build throught the draft. That is fine and that is what i believe also, but we are not following the same model we used over the past decade. All of our recent Super Bowl teams had 3-4 key players that were acquired via free agency or trade, right now we have 1. Were we building through the draft then, sure we were but we also weren't afraid to make a move to get a productive player. I'm not saying they should be over paying for anyone also, but we haven't signed a free agent starter in 7 offseasons.

Just my take on fee agency.