BlackGold4vr
03-14-2007, 10:34 AM
* Chukky Okobi is given life in todays Tribune Review, and that may be a death sentence unto itself. But perhaps the real death sentence is buried under what Okobi's agent, Joe Linta, had to say:
"The fact that they didn't ask Chukky to take a pay cut is huge. That tells me they are going to treat him fairly."
Uh, that tells me that they are going to cut him, unless an emergency crops up at center with Sean Mahan, Kendall Simmons and Marvin Philip.
The Steelers learned their lesson about asking players with dimmed chances to take pay cuts last year with Duce Staley. Once Dan Rooney asked Staley to take a pay cut last spring, Rooney felt obligated to keep him throughout the season.
No, this does not look good for Okobi. The Steelers must still be eye-balling his $2 million salary. His signing bonus (complicated by two renegotiations) appears to have $813,538 (over three years) remaining. The deduction against his salary savings could be halved now since the Steelers can, by new rules, cut two players by June 1 and designate them as June 1 cuts.
The way I see it, if the Steelers were truly serious about keeping Okobi they'd have asked him to take a pay cut. Then again, Okobi is being given one last chance to light it up. Good luck, Chukk!
Who didn't see this coming? Writing was on the wall just as soon as the ink was drying on Mahan's new contract. They weren't going to cut Philip with a salary less than half of Okobi's. I would be shocked if Okobi was still on the 53 man roster in September! :nono:
"The fact that they didn't ask Chukky to take a pay cut is huge. That tells me they are going to treat him fairly."
Uh, that tells me that they are going to cut him, unless an emergency crops up at center with Sean Mahan, Kendall Simmons and Marvin Philip.
The Steelers learned their lesson about asking players with dimmed chances to take pay cuts last year with Duce Staley. Once Dan Rooney asked Staley to take a pay cut last spring, Rooney felt obligated to keep him throughout the season.
No, this does not look good for Okobi. The Steelers must still be eye-balling his $2 million salary. His signing bonus (complicated by two renegotiations) appears to have $813,538 (over three years) remaining. The deduction against his salary savings could be halved now since the Steelers can, by new rules, cut two players by June 1 and designate them as June 1 cuts.
The way I see it, if the Steelers were truly serious about keeping Okobi they'd have asked him to take a pay cut. Then again, Okobi is being given one last chance to light it up. Good luck, Chukk!
Who didn't see this coming? Writing was on the wall just as soon as the ink was drying on Mahan's new contract. They weren't going to cut Philip with a salary less than half of Okobi's. I would be shocked if Okobi was still on the 53 man roster in September! :nono: