Steelers Source

In today’s news the Steelers signed eight players to this year’s practice squad.  They are:

• WR -Tyler Grisham
• FB – Frank Summers
• TE – Eugene Bright
• OL’s – Dorian Brooks and Kyle Jolly
• DL’s – Doug Worthington and Steve McLendon
• S – Da’Mon Cromartie-Smith

After clearing waivers, a player is eligible for the practice squad if they have less than a cumulative eight games of NFL experience on a regular season roster. Unlike being on the regular roster, these guys only make about $5,000 a week.

Jeff Reed

The latest drama queen in the NFL over having a contract re-negotiated is none other than our own Jeff Reed. Reed had the franchise tag laid on him during the off-season paying him the average of the top 5 players at his position. In his case that turns out to be $2.8 million for the upcoming season.

I’ll never wrap my brain around professional athletics and contract re-negotiations. You have a contract with a team and why teams allow players threaten to break them is beyond me. Yes, the occasional player sits out over a dispute, but you can fine them and players don’t get any younger. Their earning windows are short and they can’t afford to let a career pass by pouting. I also understand that players are not likely to sign with team that don’t redo contracts, but if all of the teams did it they would not have an option. The league’s team owners would have to be very careful about it to avoid collusion but it could be done.

After yesterday’s practice at St. Vincent College Reed took the soap box and said, “I’m not going to point anyone out or any statement out, but, yeah, I was told one thing and another thing happened, I understand business moves, but I’m not a big fan of lying.”

Look dude, you are a freakin’ kicker with a history of screwing up and being a general embarrassment of the field. You have been lucky that players on the team with much bigger profiles have been doing the same and pushing your exploits to page 2. Shut up, take your $3 million, and kick the ball.

Today, former Dallas Cowboys left tackle Flozell Adams signed a 2 year deal to come to Pittsburgh and play with the Steelers. Adams was a 5 time Pro Bowl tackle while in Big D and was released by the Cowboys to avoid paying him $6.5 million in salary for this season. Financial terms with the Steelers have not yet been disclosed, but Adams was seeking something in the neighborhood of $3.5 million per season.

The big question is where will Adams play. With Willie Colon out, the immidate need is at right tackle. However, Max Starks played on the right side during the last Super Bowl run and can’t be trusted to pass block on the blind side. My guess is that Starks moves to the right side and Adams gets plugged into the left tackle spot. You can see my last article begging for this day, so believe me when I say, great news!

Lamar Woodley

I have really been a fan of Lamar Woodley since he stepped on the field with the Steelers. After Troy Polamalu he’s my favorite player on the team, and it makes me ill that the Steelers may not be able to resign him. The Steelers normal strategy is to resign their young high impact players in the year before a contract expires and keeping them away from thinking too much about testing the open market.

The problem in the case of Woodley is that the NFL team owners opted out early from the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) thereby eliminating the salary cap for this season. The 2010 season is also operating under a new rule affecting this situation termed the “30 percent rule.” It states that with the exception of signing bonuses, contract extensions cannot be for anymore than 30 percent over the player’s base salary.

Under this formula the maximum base salary for Woodley in 2010 would be all of $598,000; nowhere near his market value. A few teams have gotten around this rule with deals that included enormous signing bonuses. In Woodley’s case, a 5 year contract would entail a signing bonus upwards of $40 million, a figure most likely far beyond the Steelers wallet and tolerance for risk.

I can only see 2 options. One is to rework his deal for the next 2 years with a healthy signing bonus. This would reward him for his contributions since joining the team and is based on the assumption that a second deal will get done when the League and Union get a new CBA in place for 2011. The second scenario is far more draconian. The Steelers can require him to play out his current contract through 2011. Assuming that the franchise tag will return as part of the new CBA in 2011, they could then franchise Woodley in 2012, and most assuredly lose him in 2013.

Sure looks like there are some incentives on both sides to work something out.