Will Steelers' Mike Wallace Sit Out The Entire Season?

The Pittsburgh Steelers have made Mike Wallace wait on getting a new long-term deal, so now Wallace is making the Steelers wait. He didn't show up to OTAs this week and doesn't plan to show up until he gets a long-term deal.

Wallace, over the course of the last two seasons, has been one of the NFL's best wide receivers. He would have more of a leadership role this season now that Hines Ward is retired. The team hired Todd Haley to be the team's new offensive coordinator and will need to implement a new offense. Wallace is missing a lot of key time.

Could he hold out and force the Steelers to trade him? He is holding all of the cards, but does Pittsburgh have enough cap space to give into his demands?

Before I get into the fiscal details of what Mike Wallace would get if he signs his one-year tender and what he wants long term, let me tell you his agent's name. Wallace is represented by Bus Cook, who most famously dragged out every Brett Favre negotiation. The Steelers are playing with fire when they negotiate with one of Cook's players.

Wallace is a restricted free-agent. If another team wants to sign him, he is free to do so, but that team would give up a first-round draft pick. His one-year tender is $2.74 million and he has yet to sign it. He wants a long-term deal in the neighborhood of Larry Fitzgerald's mega-deal he signed last year. That deal was for $120 million dollars over eight years...Pittsburgh lacks that kind of cap space. They can't offer anywhere near those numbers. Wallace could sign the one-year tender, play out the year and become an unrestricted free-agent after this season. He would be risking a lot to do that, since injuries happen so frequently in today's NFL.

Wallace must sign at some point this season, since he must accrue service time in order to reach unrestricted free-agent status. This is similar to the situation that Vincent Jackson was in with the San Diego Chargers in 2010.

A lot of football experts thought that the Steelers would trade Wallace before the NFL Draft. Pittsburgh didn't get the kind of deal that they expected and held onto him. Both sides say they want to work on a long-term deal, but it is turning into a waiting game. The Steelers can't fiscally give him the deal that he wants and not many other teams could swing the cap space either.

The Steelers offense in 2012 is rumored to look a lot different. Former Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians had a pass-happy system, but ownership wants to get back to running the ball. Haley is known for his passing attack while he was on the coaching staff of the Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys. He was the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs the previous three seasons and was fired after the final game in 2011. Ben Roethlisberger has already commented that the offense is 90% different.

The Steelers could still suit up a nice receiving corps without Wallace. Emmanuel Sanders, Antonio Brown, and recently-signed Jerricho Cotchery at wide receiver with Heath Miller and Leonard Pope as your tight-end tandem. The running back group will be getting a lot of carries. Rashard Mendenhall is coming off an injury and will need some carries from Isaac Redman and high-draft pick Chris Rainey. Jonathan Dwyer and John Clay are in camp and are battling for a roster spot.

It is only a matter of time before Mike Wallace and the Steelers come to an agreement. One of the sides will lose in the deal. The Steelers have dealt with disgruntled wide receivers in the past, Plaxico Burress and Santonio Holmes. Wallace doesn't have the on and off-the-field issues as Holmes or Burress, but know when to cut their losses. They can't afford to tie up a large portion of their salary cap on a wide receiver in a "run first" offense.

How Ben Roethlisberger Helped Tim Tebow

We all know about the recent trouble that Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, got himself into. Teams are trying to stay away from players with possible "character issues," could this have been the reason Tim Tebow shot up the draft board as a first-round pick?

Tim Tebow is probably the most celebrated college football player to come out since Roger Staubach. He was a tremendouse college football player and he is a model citizen. He is the kind of player that the NFL would love to have to represent "the shield." With the recent trouble that some high-profile players have gotten themselves into, the NFL would love to have 50-players on every team like Tebow.

The rumors is that Ben Roethlisberger has been shopped around the league are probably true, but realistically, he isn't going anywhere. It has been a long time since the Steelers have had a quality franchise quarterback, off the field issues or not, he's staying in Pittsburgh. The Rooney family has a very high standard for their players and didn't hesitate to send Santonio Holmes to the New York Jets after reports that he threw a glass at a woman at a club. The Steelers have a reputation for letting players go at the right time, but could Holmes have a Plaxico Burress type of career with the Jets? Absolutely. Unforunately, Burress is currently in jail after being convicted of a gun charge.

Clearly the recent reports of Roethlisberger acting like a drunken frat boy helped Tebow get drafted so early. Jimmy Clausen is a much better quarterback and is more NFL-ready than Tebow, but he also fell under the "character issue" trap that Dez Bryant fell into last night. Clausen had a run-in at a bar early in his Notre Dame career and he even threw a wide-receiver under the bus during a recent interview. Tebow is the perfect pick for Denver, even if they already have Kyle "Neckbeard" Orton and Brady "Abercrombie" Quinn. He'll have a place on the team and Josh McDaniels isn't afraid to run the Wildcat since he had Knowshon Moreno run many plays from it last season.

Let's hope that Tebow proves his naysayers wrong and develops into an elite quarterback, even if his mechanics aren't perfect, but you'll never read anything in the police blotter about him. The NFL has directed their focus on that, rather than on the field ability.


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The Season Is Not Lost In Pittsburgh

The Steelers are sitting at 1-2 after three weeks of football and the Steeler Nation is on edge. Troy Polamalu has been out and may not play for another couple weeks, but all is not lost in Pittsburgh. They have some tough games ahead, but if they tighten things up and get the running game established, Pittsburgh will be okay. What does Pittsburgh need to do to resurrect the season? I'll explain.

The Steelers may have a little Super Bowl hangover right now and they were a coin flip away from possibly being 0-3. They miss Polamalu, but this team reminds me of the Colts Super Bowl season when Bob Sanders went down early that year. They were below .500 after five games, but once Sanders came back, they got their swagger back. Here are some things that the Steelers need to do.

The Steelers need to stay with the running game and work the swing passes to Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall. The first two games of the year, their running back corps was shutdown and the Steelers didn't stick with them. The Titans and Bears both have great run defense, but they didn't rely on the swing pass to make their outside linebackers cheat to the outside and establish the run in-between the tackles. They did use Parker well against the Bengals, but they still couldn't win the game. I think Cincinnati has a better defense, thanks to the last two draft classes and focusing their picks on linebacker.

They must protect Roethlisberger better. The Steelers offensive line is in a state of flux, trying to get young players to mix their veterans. You will not change Big Ben's tendency to hold the ball too long and I'm not sure that you will want. He has made some big plays when he has held the ball too long, but he needs time to get the ball to his receivers. Hines Ward isn't what he used to be and Santonio Holmes isn't as good as Ward in his prime. Nate Washington was nice to have when he was on the team, but the team still haven't found a consistent #3 receiver.

San Diego comes to town this week and Norv Turner is easy to out-coach. I believe Coach Tomlin is a better coach, but Steelers have playmakers on both sides of the ball. It is still unknown if Polamalu will be ready to play, I'm guess that he will not, so that will hurt. LaDanian Tomlinson is banged up and Darren Sproles is not LT, but Phillip Rivers could be able to throw against the Steelers secondary. It will be a tough game, but Steelers fans needs to relax. If they lose against San Diego, the season is still not over. They have games against Detroit and Cleveland, they will end up 3-3 when they face Minnesota before their bye week. I say that Pittsburgh will be in great position to win a wild-card spot or you never know, Baltimore could implode.

This post means a lot because I really don't like the Steelers, but I like when they are good. The Colts have lost some big playoffs games against Pittsburgh in the past and I do hold grudges. I live in Columbus, OH now and it's bad enough that I get every Browns and Bengals games on television on Sundays. If the Steelers were bad, I couldn't stomach one more bad AFC North game. I still have to watch two Browns/Bengals games a year, I need to move out of this state.