This Is Why No One Is Trying To Sign Wallace................

Mike Wallace wants to be paid like Larry Fitzgerald

Steelers WR is a restricted free agent Brad Biggs

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Print This March 22, 2012, 11:08 AM EST

Wonder why your team hasn’t been in hot pursuit of Mike Wallace, the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver that would seemingly offer good value even tendered at the highest level as a restricted free agent?Wonder why your team hasn’t been in hot pursuit of Mike Wallace, the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver that would seemingly offer good value even tendered at the highest level as a restricted free agent?

Well, Wallace is shooting for the moon. And then some. Just because you want to make a deal with Wallace doesn’t mean it will happen.

The Steelers are in a tight salary-cap position that they’ve tried to massage by releasing a handful of veteran players. If a team signs Wallace to an offer sheet and the Steelers elect (or cannot) match it, the price tag is a first-round draft pick. For teams in the second half of the first round, it looks enticing. But then you have to consider the contract you’ll have to pay Wallace vs. the slotted deal that will go to a first-round draft pick. (This is a key factor that many ignore. A mid first round pick will get a contract of around $10-$12 mil total over 4 years. Wallace is looking for an 8 year deal that averages $15 mil PER YEAR)

That is where there is a big issue. A huge one, according to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. The 25-year-old Wallace is seeking a blockbuster contract. Per Barrows, he wants a deal that eclipses the $120 million, eight-year package that Larry Fitzgerald received from the Arizona Cardinals. That should be about the end of the discussion right there.

Wallace has been a terrific deep threat for the Steelers and he’s a talented performer worthy of a long-term investment. But a Fitzgerald pay day? A Calvin Johnson pay day? Not now.

Wallace can potentially be an unrestricted free agent next year if the Steelers can’t get a deal done with him or elect not to use the franchise tag. Right now, Wallace has to be looking ahead to that because no one is going to fork over a first rounder and a Fitzgerald-type deal for Wallace. Per Barrows, the San Francisco 49ers explored the option. Surely, the sticker shock sent them running for cover. (And this may well be the same problem we'd have trading Forte if his contract demands are prohibitive)

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I should post this in the Bears Forum too since it has factors involved that bear on the Forte situation as well as a great comment by Biggs on why teams are reluctant to pay big money for established players when top rookies cost a mere fraction of what these vets are asking for.

For instance. Why would a team want to give up a first round pick and pay Wallace $15 mil per year when with that same choice the might draft Kendall Wright or Stephen Hill and pay him $2.5 to $3 mil per year. Maybe even less if they aren't picked until after the 20th pick. Is Wallace worth that much more? Of course not.

Are these guys and their agents completely insane? Is the reason we can't come to an agreement with Forte because he's looking for a deal like AP and CJ got as opposed to those that backs like Foster and Lynch just got?

lol...what? 15m per year? I dont think Peyton Manning even made that much.

But the point of the rookie scale was to start paying your established players the money that the top rookies were making. And now they are using at as excuse to NOT sign the vets? BS and ballhair.

Now Wallace isn't in the same hemisphere as Larry, but I would want him over Garcion, and that is where his target should be.

Great player with awesome speed, but 15m a year just is not worth it to me. I'm happy what we have started with Marshall I think we could do a lot more with that cap room.

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Originally Posted by Riczaj01

But the point of the rookie scale was to start paying your established players the money that the top rookies were making. And now they are using at as excuse to NOT sign the vets? BS and ballhair.

Now Wallace isn't in the same hemisphere as Larry, but I would want him over Garcion, and that is where his target should be.

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But we all know that just because they gave money back to the owners that doesn't mean they can force them to spend it. Some will and some won't but the Bears are not the cheapest in that regard by far. Next year teams will be required to spend the majority of their cap so that will throw a little more money in the pot but it still doesn't excuse ridiculous expectations like Wallace's. He's not a $15 mil per year guy because he can't dominate like Fitz and Megatron can with their size.

I want to be paid like Larry Fitzgerald.

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Originally Posted by 4th and 26

I want to be paid like Larry Fitzgerald.

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I'll just take the 3% his agent made from his contract.