Wallace Has No Plans To Sign Tender

I've said all along wallace wasn't going anywhere and we'd get a 1st rd pick for him. He just isn't that good and desired by any other clubs. This is to our advantage as his long term deal won't cost us 50-60 mil.

We are better with him than without him but we will be ok either way.

Not signing his tender means nothing in reality. It keeps his options open with other teams so I'm sure his agent has told him not to. If he does sign his tender he can still negoiate and sign a longterm deal.

Signing means he's committed to the steelers, Not signing means he's committed to the best deal he can get.

Cajun-

 

This 'true Steeler' stuff is killing me.

Someone please explain.

None of you have taken better jobs? I'm just going to assume that some are old enough to have had jobs.
Maybe if the management was 'true Steeler' management... (ya following me here?)

Also, why would a team trade a top pick, say #6-#7(or higher), when they could just draft a WR, with that pick, who is better?

 

I'm just saying I've already read stuff like, "Ship him, get him out, wanting money so badly that you or your agent position yourselves to get as much as possible is not the Steeler way." They have an image of the Steeler Way as bloated as the egos they claim to hate. My point is that he might miss some OTAs or training camp, but it would take a moron of epic proportions (Michael Crabtree) to actually miss anything important. Not that training camp isn't important, but going into his 4th year it won't kill him if he misses a few days. He'll have to sign something, be it a long contract or his tender.

Personally, I think he could definitely get more money elsewhere, and if he does sign with us, it will be at a discount. Everyone knows we can't compete with the teams who make huge splash signings, unless we get that discount.

 

I am sure this has changed under the new cba.If the player has not reported by game 1 or 2 i don't remember which he loses that year so if he does not report by then he will be a RFA again

 

Well thats even better no way he holds out i just dont see it happening he would be stupid to but you never know with these young guys

 

I agree, never understood the true Steeler stuff. Some fans haven't realized that players are nothing more then hired mercenaries. I guess some fans want Wallce to do what the "man" wants. It's easy for fans to be critical of player's careers and money when it's not their careers or money on the line.

 

Good point that I overlooked. But still, it's premature since he hasn't missed a minute. All he really said was, "I want lots of money," which every single player in the NFL says when negotiating a contract. Even guys like Aaron Smith and Heath Miller, two of my all time favorites and truly humble men, and Steelers among Steelers, got theirs. Maybe they didn't say it publicly, but you think their agents played nice behind closed doors? Some agents like to play publicly, and you have to admit when a dozen teams have reason to sign him and there's a potential bidding war, it's not a stupid way to go.

 

With 3 years of NFL experience he thinks that he is the next best thing since sliced bread! where was his Fitzgerald talent in the second half of the season and in the playoffs.We just had Hines begging to remain a Steeler and this kid did not learn nothing from it he has seen the likes of Woodley and others accept a contract that they very well could have gotten more but he didn't learn. So in my eyes he is going to be a problem even if we sign him typical diva wide out. I hope we get another 1st rounder and sign Brown to an extension.

 

How many times did Hines get us 2000 yards? How many times did Jerry Rice? How are you disappointed with less than 2000 yards? Where is the line between star and superstar? How is he a cancer? How has he hurt the locker room? How has any behavior translated to the field? What has he done so far this offseason that indicates himself as a greedy cancer besides anything that could easily be construed as contract jockeying?

All he's trying to do is maximize the biggest pay day of his life. I realize it's unbecoming and more humble people wouldn't be able to do it publicly. But all of our players do it in one way or another, including your favorite. It's just been a long time since the Steelers had someone in a position to get this much and get so much attention from other teams. People act like no one wants him and "the league knows the real Mike Wallace" just because no one decided to give up $60 million AND a first round pick. Can anyone tell me how often that happens, or when the last one was? Do people not understand how amazing it is that it's even a possibility?

 

If we can survive with Hines Ward, Cedric Wilson and Antwan Randle El,and win a Super Bowl we can do without Mike Wallace. I would seek a trade and at least get a 2nd and a 3rd this draft and maybe a 3rd next year.

 

Hines Ward held himself out of training camp during a contract dispute. Mike Wallace hasn't done that.

 

i found this , from nick signorelly (bleacher report columnist) so take it with a grain of salt

The Steelers knew that Wallace was never going to sign this tender before they even put it on him.
From a VERY reliable source, the Steelers and Wallace agent have had a few conversations, and Wallace is not asking for anywhere NEAR what it was reported he wanted from the 49ers. That is what he told his agent to tell them he wanted, because he never had any intention of leaving the Steelers.
From what I have heard, the Steelers have already offered him a contract that was better than what the Bills paid Stevie Johnson. I think the deal offered was somewhere in the 6 year, $57 million dollar range (or close to it). At no point was Larry Fitzgerald money asked for from the Steelers.
seems the agent is pushing too much

 

If we offered him 6 and 57 he is a dam fool to not take it

 

Interesting.

Out of interest, does anyone know who Wallace's agent is? Or who else is on their books? Could give us more of an idea as to how they've dealt with these things in the past...

 

Bus Cook...

Some of Cooks' notable clients have included Brett Favre, Calvin Johnson, Randy Moss, Marcedes Lewis, Adalius Thomas, Jerious Norwood, Tony Scheffler, Jay Cutler, Cam Newton and Steve McNair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_%22Bus%22_Cook

http://buscook.com/clients.asp

 

I think far too much emphasis is put on Wallace opening things up for Brown and our other receivers. We don't need a guy who does nothing but run deep. Yes, there will be plays where we send a guy deep because it's an effective way to open things up, but to say that if we lose Wallace then we lose the ability to go deep, that's absurd. It's also absurd to think Brown is only good because Wallace opens things up for him. Defences don't need to triple team Wallace to shut him down. The fact is, he can't make a catch in traffic, so if even one DB is draped on him, he will rarely come down with the ball. It's not like teams were triple teaming him every time Brown caught a ball. NE hasn't had a deep threat in 2 years. Peyton Manning never really had a true deep threat. Yeah, those teams will send a WR deep on some plays, but they never had a speed guy that's sole role was going deep to open things up underneath. That's simply not needed.

Is Wallace a good receiver? Yes. Is he great? His numbers indicate he is, but I don't think so. I think he's highly overrated. Under Arians, we went deep constantly, which inflated Wallace's numbers. Put Wallace on a team that doesn't throw deep a lot and he's average at best. A great WR needs to be able to do it all, and I don't believe Wallace can.

Even if I'm wrong about Wallace, the fact is, if we lose him, we will be perfectly fine and so will Brown. Brown is a good WR with or without Wallace going deep, and with or without Wallace, it's the coaches job to get our WR's open so Ben can find them. I have faith that will happen.

 

Well, you're right that any receiver can run deep and take a guy with him. Some might even take two guys with him. That's not what makes Wallace special. What makes him special is that when he does run deep, he gets open no matter how many guys they put on him. How many receivers can you say that about? So it's not just about drawing coverage, it's about being serious. That's what separates him from someone like Ted Ginn. I know it's been well established that Ben has missed him deep on many occasions, but people don't seem to connect that fact to Wallace's drop in numbers late. If Ben had connected on half his terrible deep throws, Wallace would have had 5 more TDs and a couple hundred more yards. He just runs right by guys. Even in the AFCCG, he ran right by Revis like Revis was going 75%. Ben underthrew him, Wallace slowed down, Revis caught up and knocked the ball away, the announcers talked about Revis's "closing speed." I know we can't expect any QB to make a perfect deep throw every time, but if Ben could do it as well as the other "elite" QBs out there, Wallace would have 20 TDs easily. Why wouldn't he? What would stop him? Have you guys ever seen how open he gets, and how often, regardless of opponent? It's like 3 times a game at least.

Another thing about Wallace affecting Brown is that it's not just numbers, it's personnel too. How many #1 CBs did Wallace face this year? I think all of them. What did Brown face? A bunch of #2s at best? The difference there is always significant, and can sometimes be night and day, depending on who you're playing. I agree Brown is a great player and is capable of being a #1, but there's no doubt he will suffer without Wallace. He'll face much better defenders, and more of them.

 

exactly. sanders can fly too.

 

Cheers for the info. Quite a varied bunch, negotiation-wise...

 

Snack - You make some good points. I'm not as high on Wallace as you are so we'll have to agree to disagree on some of those points. In my eyes, a great WR adjusts to the ball and comes down with it despite being covered or the QB making a bad throw. Wallace isn't good at either of those things. With that said, your post brings me to my next point.

Lets say you're right and Wallace can blow the top off defences at will, but Ben has trouble hitting him in stride. Is that really what we want as an offence, to constantly go deep even though our QB is sub-par when it comes to the deep ball and our deep threat can't adjust well? Do we really want to rely on a guy who's sole purpose is to run plays that have a low success rate? No matter how fast Wallace is, the deep ball isn't going consistent enough to rely on it, otherwise everyone would be doing it. We put up a lot of yards last season, but we weren't consistent whatsoever. When we needed that 3rd and 2, we often couldn't get it. The deep ball has its place, but not every 5th pass, and if that's the only thing wallace is great at, I'd rather some other team give him $10 million per year.

 

What I'd LIKE is for someone to realize the blessing we have been handed (Brown and Sanders are both fast, even very fast, but they can NOT do what Mike can do downfield) and force Ben and Wallace to spend an extra 30 minutes every day throwing and catching fly passes of varying distances. In the games, Ben still seems like it's such a new thing -- he'll underthrow him like he's another receiver, or he'll overcompensate and throw it beyond everybody. That's a dandy excuse for season one, but season three? They should have worked out the kinks by now. They should have been the deep ball version of Manning and Harrison's perfect red zone chemistry. They could have worked their way into it and they haven't. Call me a romantic for hoping they get it together in year 4

 

Part of the problem is that a 50 yard bomb is always going to be a relatively low success play. Very few QB's in the world can consistently throw an accurate ball that distance. Ben just doesn't have that ability, and I'm not convinced at this point in his career he's going to develop it. I'd much rather see more mid-range passes, those plays will consistently move the chains. We may have put up a lot of yards last year, but we weren't consistent. Our offence would disappear for half a game sometimes, that's inexcusable with the playmakers we have. I do believe we will see more consistency under Haley though.

 

VERY good read about our offensive problems/tendencies, here on the last page or so. Thanx, Guys.
Snack, while I am a big fan of Big Ben, I`m glad you have the guts to call it like it is.
Why Can`t Ben hit Wallace in stride on those deep passes?
I even remember during his suspension, he said he learned how fast Wallace was, by watching on tv, instead of being in the game, and vowed "I will not underthrow him anymore..."
First off, couldn`t he see the same thing, watching film, while he was our starting qb, and NOT suspended?
And secondly, if he 'LEARNED" from it, why did it continue to happen?
I ain`t buyin the "lack of O-line protection" answer, because on several of those underthrown passes, he was NOT under pressure... ? And I don`t question his arm-strength, so... What gives?