Roye Signs with Browns
As yunz have seen, Roye signed with the Browns for a 6-year, $30M contract.
Many Steeler fans will nonchalantly cast Roye aside like a leper, just like when Chad Brown left; when Carnell left, when CJ left, and so on. "He�s not worth it" will be a common theme.
Maybe Roye isn�t worth that much. However, he COULD have been signed for a lot LESS, LAST YEAR. He was signed only to a 1-year tender as a RFA last spring. Supposedly, he turned down the Stillers multi-year offer --- and who knows how CHINCY and CHEAP the offer was. Instead, the clodfooted Witmann was given the 3-year deal while Roye got a 1-year tender.
Roye then came to camp in trim shape and kicked ass at camp from day 1. Here was ANOTHER chance to sign him, but the stingy, stodgy Rooney refused to do so.
Then, during the season, Nolan "Hot Tub" Harrison got hurt for the umpteenth time, missing a plethora of games. Joel Steed was also hobbled and displayed a girth the size of Fat Albert. Roye COULD have been signed to a multi-year deal during the season, but it�s not "the Steeler way" of doing business.
Finally, the season ended, but Roye would have been a fool to sign a deal with free agency only 40 days away.
There were NUMEROUS chances to sign the team�s BEST defensive lineman, and just like other situations (like with Chad Brown), the Stillers CHOSE not to pursue them. They then got out-bid by another team.
Roye himself is not the second coming of LC Greenwood or Bruce Smith. Nevertheless, he was the BEST we had, and because Staat blows; because Harrsion is a malingerer; and because it takes the Steelers about 5 years to groom a DE for the 3-4 defense, we have NO ONE ready to even remotely fill his shoes. It�s ok to lose a guy to free agency --- like Leon Searcy --- when you have another very capable guy (Justin Strelzyk) ready to step in. But when you have no one to step in, you cannot even think of improving your club by signing a castoff from another team (NE�s Chris Sullivan) or inserting a green benchwarmer (like A. Smith).
What�s hilarious about this fiasco, is that Bill Cowhead himself declared Roye "the team�s NUMBER ONE priority" in the offseason. One day into free agency, Roye is snatched away without so much as a whimper or a counterpunch from Cowhead and the Stillers. How pathetic. Cowhead is already displaying gross ineptitude at running the personnel side of the business. Without question, a long and hideous season awaits.
The Still Mill