A Weak 2013 nfl draft calls for drastic action for 8-8 teams.

[TarlsQtr]

Larry Warford is just as good if not better than Warmack Warford is not as well known because he played on a horrible team and warmack played for Alabama Warford set a record for consecutive starts so he has more experience than Warmack

Warford is very good (I live an hour from Lexington and get to watch him) but he does not compare to Warmack, IMO. I would put him behind Cooper from NC as well.

I really do hate the idea of drafting OL again but I just cannot imagine passing this guy up if he makes it to us.

[Crash]

They should at least transition tag him. Give them the right to match.

[TarlsQtr]

Seems to me, we've can't just let Wallace walk for nothing. If we do, I'll be calling for Colbert's job. We need to get "something" for Wallace. Even if it's just an additional 3rd pick.

But you can't tell me we can't get atleast a second round pick from someone for Wallace. That would go a long way in helping us to get where we want to go.

And exactly what is the alternative? You cannot get something for a player that is not under contract to you. Wallace has no reason to do us a favor and sign with us just to be traded. Likewise, other teams are not going to sit around and let us sign Wallace and then trade a draft choice when they could just have signed him in the first place and kept the pick.

The only other option, as NPB pointed out, is to franchise him and run a huge risk of busting our own cap. Even if you do that, it will be about $10 million (more than he is worth) and no one is going to give that kind of coin AND draft pick(s) for Wallace.

[NeilPatrickBanana]

They should at least transition tag him. Give them the right to match.

Why? The transition tag does nothing.

A franchise tag requires another team attempting to sign him to part with draft picks
A transition tag requires no compensation

Essentially, the transition tag is meaningless, and it's only used in situations like Max Starks, where you DON'T expect another team to offer a significant long term deal to the player, so the transition tag ends up being a better deal for them. But at the same time, you dont want to sign them to a long term extension (see Max Starks, ironically, the ONLY player to be slapped with a transition tag since the removal of the "poison pill" stuff from the CBA)

Essentially, using the Transition Tag on Mike Wallace would just be dumb (cap wise)... and meaningless (other team could still sign him away as if he were a free agent with no compensation to Steelers)

[NeilPatrickBanana]

In case anyone is interested... here's the projected 2013 tag numbers...
CB: Franchise: $10.668 Transition: $8.939
DE: Franchise: $10.984 Transition: $8.994
DT: Franchise: $8.306 Transition: $6.919
K/P: Franchise: $2.926 Transition: $2.654
LB: Franchise: $9.455 Transition: $8.216
OL: Franchise: $9.660 Transition: $8.560
QB: Franchise: $14.642 Transition: $12.845
RB: Franchise: $8.079 Transition: $6.851
S: Franchise: $6.798 Transition: $5.899
TE: Franchise: $5.962 Transition: $5.105
WR: Franchise: $10.357 Transition: $8.716

[Crash]

I would do the transition tag for that price. He's not going to sign it unless he has to. You can get the $8 mil in cap room simply by re-working Ben's 2013 base salary into a bonus if he's still here.

[NeilPatrickBanana]

I would do the transition tag for that price. He's not going to sign it unless he has to. You can get the $8 mil in cap room simply by re-working Ben's 2013 base salary into a bonus if he's still here.

The Steelers are 17 million over the cap. Ben's restrcuture was to largely be a part of getting under the cap with enough room to sign some depth and hold space for draft picks. They can create about 20 million in space by restructuring Ben, Wwoodley, Timmons, and Brown

They can get another 10 million if they cut Harrison, Keisel, Colon, and Cotchery.

So that would leave 13 million in space

Giving Wallace a transition tag would leave about 4 million.... which is probably not enough to sign a rookie class.

If you are good with losing Hampton, Harrison, Keisel, Foote, Will Allen, Keenan Lewis,, Mendenhall, Burress, Cotchery, Colon, Starks, Legursky, Foster.... and replacing them with... 2nd year players and rookies... then by all means tag Wallace and destroy the roster



Not only that, but tagging Wallace would most likely cause him to hold out through camp and pre-season again, causing the same problems we saw this year in chemistry, timing, learning the offense.

[LatrobePA]

Wallace will be gone for the sake of the team.

[weakdraft]

If you get a RB who can push the ball down the field, or score from 99 yards out, ALL YOUR OTHER PROBLEMS GO AWAY.
It burns clock, your defense can give up scores, your passing and protection doesn't need to be that good, and so on.

[coach]

I am not sure the running game was what let us down the most this past season, especially when you factor in the injuries on O-line and RB. We actually had a few really good games running the ball. Our D had problems covering (combintaion of DBs and lack of presure) and the age of our D players will become more problematic if we don't address it in the draft. When you lose the number of games we lost, to the type of teams we lost to, the draft is "likely" the best answer to your problems. When you talk of relatively weak draft classes, all 32 teams pick from the same pool, so getting the best players available will help you to "relatively" improve your team.

With many new GMs and HCs, I hope a few QBs fly off the board in the first and leave us with some of the best D players to choose from.