Wallace a no-show; Steelers suspend negotiations

[Dodens Grav]

Originally Posted by ETL

I don't want them to give a contract to Wallace paying him $8 mil a year. That's too much to have locked into a WR in our team. I would be happy with a $4-5 mil/yr contract ($6 at the most) and if that is what the Rooneys are offering - great.

If Wallace wants more, there is nothing we can do. It is his perogative to want more. I just don't want the Steelers to be the ones to give it to him.

I'm with the Rooneys on this. They have a long standing policy not to negotiate with holdouts and if they started doing it with Wallace - they will open a pandora's box that they will never be able to close again.


Top Paid WRs in 2011

1. Lary fitzgerald - $120 mil / 8 yrs (last yr salary : $21 mil)
2. Calvin Johnson - $55 million / 6 yrs (last yr: $12.6 mil)
3. Brandon Marshall - $47 mil / 5 years (last yr: $10.6 mil)
4. Andre Johnson - $62 mil / 7 yr ($8.8 mil)
5. Steve Smith - $43 mil / 6 yrs ($8.5 mil)
6. Miles Austin - $57 mil / 7 yrs ($8.5 mil)
7. Reggie Wayne - $40 mil / 6 yrs ($8.0 mil)
8. Roddy White - $48 mil / 6 yrs ($6.5 mil)
9. Greg Jennings - $27 mil / 4 yrs ($6.5 mil)
10. Anquan Boldin - $28 mil / 4 yrs (6.0 mil)

Who is "we"? The Steelers can afford to give Wallace a big contract, so I don't know what you're talking about. Also, here's a more thorough list of what receivers are worth in 2012:

Originally Posted by Dodens Grav

$10M for a legitimate #1 receiver is becoming the norm today, and it increases every year.

Here are some contracts of note:

Calvin Johnson: $16.5M
Larry Fitzgerald: $15M
Vincent Jackson: $11.11M
Brandon Marshall: $10M
Steve Smith: $9.5M
Wes Welker: $9.5M
Dwayne Bowe: $9.5M
DeSean Jackson: $9.4M
Santonio Holmes: $9.05M
Miles Austin: $9M
Roddy White: $8
Anquan Boldin: $7M
Stevie Johnson: $7.25M

The majority of the top receivers on other teams are either 1) no really #1 receivers (Cleveland, Seattle, Minnesota, Miami, Washington), are too old for a big contract (Indianapolis, San Francisco), or haven't had their big contract yet (New York (Giants), Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay, Tennessee). Others have had their worth diminished due to injuries. Also, many of these large contracts were signed a few years ago, and thus by this past offseason's standards are somewhat dated. For example, Greg Jennings signed a 4 year, $27M contract in 2009. If he was a free agent in 2012, he would have easily netted Vincent Jackson's contract or better. He is in a contract year this season, so he should have a big offseason in 2013.

Admittedly some of these numbers have changed since I originally posted this, but these were per year averages of their most recent contracts, including franchise tags.

[TRH]

Originally Posted by teegre

I wish that I shared your optimism, brother.


Because, now... I expect Wallace to play hardball, and not report until he gets a new contract.  

  

Good. Let him play hardball. And he can sit out the entire *#!&4 year. He's not the one who gets to play hardball here.
If he tries to play "hardball"...i guarantee you he ain't gettin' no contract in this city.

[TheVet]

The business side of the NFL can get ugly, and it puts both players and teams in tough positions. But we do have a collective bargaining agreement that spells out the rules. For every Mike Wallace who plays way above his contract, there are quite a few Limas Sweeds who walk away with unearned money. That's just the way it is in the first few years, by agreement between players and owners.

Wallace has made his point. But now he's crossed a line, and his actions are negatively impacting the team. The longer it takes, the more damage will be done, and the more fan support he will lose.

For me personally, I'll be fine if Wallace shows up in the next few days. But after that, I can see myself moving over to the "who needs him?" camp. I'm not sure how fast that will happen, but this guy is being offered $2.7 million to play for a chance at $10 million yearly afterwards to play a game - and he's hurting our favorite team. He needs to get his butt to work in short order.

[Dodens Grav]

Originally Posted by TRH

i like how everybody before....said "ah, don't worry, he'll be there the first day when camp comes..".

Now, some are saying "ah, don't worry, he'll be here in a couple days". And i'm seeing "ah, he'll be here soon...". I'm not seeing ANYthing positive so far in this situation whatsoever... And i'm not seeing anything that would change one's mind otherwise.
He should have been here first day. No reason to think "he'll be here in a couple days". I'm glad the Steelers suspended negotiations. Good for the b*st**d. I hope they cut his pay like they are entitled to do (although i don't think they will unless this goes into games...).

The HInes Ward situation quoted in the article was different. Different in that Hines seems like a much more "stand-up" kind of guy and truly liked playing here and wanted to be here. He proved that right through the retirement. Wallace isn't that guy. To me, he could care less if he's here or somewhere else.

Steelers......move the team on.......and just worry about locking down a long-termer on Antonio Brown. Try to do it sooner than later...the more we wait on that one, the higher the price point will get.

I will never understand this type of reaction to athletes from sports fans. It's as if they don't realize sports are businesses an athletes are employees.

1) I don't think anybody said he'll be here the first day of camp. Pretty much everybody knew this was a likely possibility.

2) The Steelers' opportunity to reduce his tender has LONG since passed.

[LVSteelersfan]

You can bet that his agent is the one pushing this. 9 times out of ten those rat bas***ds are just trying to line their own pockets because they also get a cut. Sorry Wallace, but you can go take a freakin hike for all I care. If he holds out too long he is still a RFA in the same boat next year.

[Millers the sh!t]

**** Wallace, he ain't that great. I can live without seeing him on the field. No tears from me...

[Bayz101]

It's a business, and don't act like we didn't know this possibility was there. Not only was it likely that Wallace would hold out, based on what's he's done already, it was damn near written in stone. That doesn't mean the Rooney's will like it, but that's not something we could really predict. It pisses me off that he's sitting out training camp, even if just for a few days, but he wants paid. What can you do?

[Bayz101]

The Steelers will stop negotiations on a long-term deal until Wallace signs his $2.7 million restricted free-agent tender and reports to training camp, a team source told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

This is really the team's only resort to get Wallace to training camp. The Steelers can't fine him because he hasn't signed his tender and officially isn't under contract.

As the Post-Gazette points out, this is a tactic that the Steelers have used before. Pittsburgh halted contract talks with wide receiver Hines Ward in 2005 when he missed the first two weeks of camp.

Steelers president Art Rooney II declined comment on the situation Wednesday, and coach Mike Tomlin said he hasn't spoken to Wallace in about two weeks.

There's still reason to believe the sides will work out a deal before the regular season begins. It just seems now that Wallace will have to show up to get it.


http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/pos...medium=twitter

[pete74]

wallace is worth 8million a year and i bet that is close to what he gets. everyone seems down but im willing to bet we have him signed within 1 week from today

[Dodens Grav]

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2012/07...-steelers-you/

Dave Bryan over at Steelers Depot, as always, does great work in breaking down contracts.

The TL;DR version of this article is basically that Bryan can see a realistic deal being in the 5 year, $40-50 million range with $20-25 guaranteed. It's really worth reading if you want to actually understand how contracts work though, and why guaranteed money, signing bonuses, roster bonuses, option bonuses, amortized money, etc., are just as, if not more, important than the mere per year breakdown of the full contract.