ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in FA

I know we are not a team that signs a lot of Free Agents and we believe in building through the draft, which is something i firmly believe in, but i think this is the year we really need to make a decent signing a la when we signed Farrior or Hartings.

We have not made a move really worth anything since we signed Ryan Clark and our team had gotten old and now we have had to cut a lot of those players, leaving us rather thin. We can't just patch up with draft picks and i'm not sure we have the depth on our current roster that we need, especially with how slowly we tend to bring our draft picks along.

I know these guys won't come extremely cheap, but i think we could get it done being we have 8 mill in Cap space now and the ability to restructure other contracts. I believe Troy and James Harrison could be restructured and both are willing to do so. To pair one of these guys up with Timmons would really be a nice young talented group of ILB's.

It would be so nice going into the draft with not so many glaring needs and the ability to follow our usual plan and take best player available also.

What does everyone else think?

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

i like tullock more than the other two , if we spend some cap we are more vulnerable vs a wallace offers
too bad he just resign with the lions

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

just saw that. Damn.

Yea, we will be more vulnerable to offers on Wallace, but in all reality with the money being droopped on WR's, i doubt we match an offer anyway. Not our style to spend on WR's and also we would be able to resign Brown and i think we see him as more valuble to our team and he will come cheaper.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

No UFAs are getting signed by this team of any significance other than camp fodder until the Wallace situation has been taken care of. We will go into the draft with pretty much what we have. We have added some depth at WR and TE. I still argue that we could go into the season RIGHT NOW (assuming we sign Wallace) and win 11 or 12 games without adding a player to our roster. Why? Name me one starter that has been lost of significance that doesn't already have a planned replacement.

Gilbert/Legs/Pouncey/Foster/Colon
Wallace, Brown, Heath, Redman, Johnson, Ben

Hood/Hampton (if healthy)/Keisel
Woodley/Timmons/Foote/Harrison
Ike/Troy/Clark/Lewis

You see, this team is still VERY solid. That team has some holes, but holes that over time will be fixed AS BEST they can be.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

larry grant for a 7rd ?

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

That 8 million in cap space that is money the Steelers needed to have to offer all the restricted free agents. They don't have that money to go out and sign other free agents. For the ILB position Foote and Timmons will start unless they get Hightower at #24. Those other guys are looking to get paid.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

Part of me is seriously afraid that Foote will start even if we do get Hightower. They damn near started Hartwig over Pouncey, and they didn't even like Hartwig. They love Foote, and they are terrified of inexperience.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

The 8 mill cap space is after the RFA tenders. Granted we have to pay draft picks but that won't be that much and we can manufacture some more if needed.

Tarheel flyer-

yes this team is still pretty good without adding much, but being pretty good is not the goal. The goal is winning a Super Bowl. We need an ILB, Foote was not better than Farrior last year and Farrior wasn't great. We need a guard, Legursky isn't the answer. We can always use a corner, although hopefully Brown turns into a plesant surprise. We are going to need a NT and Safety at some point also.

It would be nice to not have so many glaring needs going into the draft, especially with our philosophy of drafting best position available and bringing our rookies along at a slower pace.

I do agree that they are keeping cap space available for Wallace to try to match if needed and negotiating right now, but in all reality there is no way we will pay him what he will want. The price has been driven up too hight by all these other deals. I believe we can not afford both Wallace and Brown and i think the organization finds Brown more important and less expensive. Lets be real also, Wallace is not comming to camp on the RFA tender of 2.7 mill. He will hold out. If not one signs him now we need to shop him so he does not have by the b**** and end up geting a 3rd rounder for him when he is holding out.

Hugesnack-

I am scared of the same thing. Not high on Foote anymore. I like hightower alot, but i'm a little concerned about his lateral speed.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

Yeah Tulloch was looking for some money...and I hear Lofton is too...as you can see nobody has signed him yet and thats one of the bigger reasons I've read. I wanted them to look at Dan Connor...shoot Dallas signed him for 6 mil over 2 yrs...which is just about what Foote is making (around 3 mil this yr). But again we know how the Steelers are.

The only guy out there that I would consider at this point is trying to sign Larry Grant away from the 49ers (for a 7th rounder). Other than that there isnt too much left...I dont know much about Hawthorne...plus who knows how Hawthorne or Lofton would even play in the 3-4.

Also I never remember hearing they were 8 mil under AFTER the tenders. I heard after they did the tendering they were 2-3 mil under...and then with Casey's cut...they saved another 3 mil. Plus dont assume the Steelers cant pay him what he wants/etc...you DONT know what he wants or whats going on behind the scenes...none of us do...you've heard the saying about people who assume right?

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2011/09/st ... -contract/

extra money rolled over and more from the cowboys and redskins deal.

I know what you mean about assuming, but when have the steelers ever paid a WR huge money? Also, if Wallace was really wanting to say and going to do a deal that was beneficial for the Steelers also, the deal would have been done before Free Agency. So its not really an assumption.

Being that they both play in the middle i'm sure they could translate to ILB in 3/4. I believe that Farrior played in a 4/3 with the Jets. Yes, i wanted to look at Conner also. Thought he would have been a good fit for relatively cheap. If they sign a LB, they could afford to cut Foote also and save 3 mill that could go toward that deal. I don't see Foote being effective on Special teams and we need our non starting LB's to contribute there.

See we usually don't spend (which i'm fine with and understand our strategy), but we have picked up some timely Free Agents in the past. I believe we are at that time again. I belive if those guys are on the market after Friday we will start to explore. Who knows, maybe they are in talks and telling those guys to be patient with them. Comming here to play the other ILB spot has to be an attractive career move.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

I forgot about the 1.6 mil from the Cowboys/Skins thing. But I still didnt think it brought it up that high. As far as paying WR huge money. This is a new era in the NFL...as much as we hate it...its more of a passing league...so WRs are becoming more of a premium like RBs used to be. I KNEW a deal wouldnt get done before FA started, especially with the team not even knowing the cap number until like days before FA started and without a cap number you cant afford to sign players when your in the position they were in...they needed to focus on cuts, restructures/etc...and then once the cap number was announced they had something to work with. Plus a lot of times the player and team want to see what the player is worth on the FA market (usually this works better when they are UFA not RFAs but still it applies either way) before making a deal.

But not all 4-3 LBs can make the proper transition to a 3-4 LB...Farrior (if he did come from a 4-3) was one that did work out...others over the years have not...again just pointing it out as to a possible reason (besides money) these guys were not looked into.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

I can tell from a lot of your other posts that you really want to keep Wallace, but at this point it is not looking resonable. Yes, this is a new NFL and passing the ball all over the field is what teams do, but the winning formula of not over paying now matter who it is will not go away. The top teams just don't do it and the bad teams keep over paying. If Wallace really wants to stay he should not break the steelers bank, Ward didn't This also keeps guys who want to win on these teams. Look at Casey Hampton taking a pay cut, he obviously wants to win.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

In reality of course anyone would like to keep a could player that your team drafts...but in reality...with Wallace I wouldnt loose sleep over loosing him (esp if someone signed him while he was an RFA)...and if they can get Cotchery back I'd be fine with that.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

tulloch was signed elsewhere today.

 

Re: ILB's Tulloch, Lofton, and Hawthorne still available in

Hawthorne is the last one left now after Lofton signing yesterday.

Tullochs deal was 5 years 25 mill, we could afford a deal like that. They could even cut Foote and save anothr 3 mill if they made a move on a quality ILB.