Last weekend I saw a news flash that the
Steelers signed Gardocki on ESPN's running ticker.� Naturally, I scrambled to the internet to read up on it because
the only Gardocki I knew was a punter floating around the league.� Sure enough, much to my dismay, the Steelers
decided to add to their collection of million dollar punters, which
incidentally is more than their million dollar QBs.� Yes that is correct, an organization that spends more time
drafting and evaluating TEs than QBs, also is currently spending more money on
the Punter position than the QB position.�
How dare people complain that the Steelers aren't shrewdly managing
their salary cap.
The real kicker, er punter, of the Gardocki signing is that the Steelers
actually had an opportunity to create some room under the cap.� Yes, they could have released Miller, or
even threatened to release him, thereby forcing him to take a base salary cut
and instant relief against this year's cap.�
By releasing him they could have signed three or four punters either out
of work veterans or undrafted free agents to league minimum offers and had a
punt off competition this July.� Would
there be a big difference between that and what we'll see with Gardocki.� Well except for the nearly million dollars a
year we could have saved against the salary cap.
Then the Steelers went about the usual dilly dallying business of taking care
of their own.� They signed Kreider to a
contract that was a tad higher than I would have liked, but atleast that move
was palatable.� The Haggans signing just
proves that this organization is as helter skelter with regards to free agency
as they are in their game planning, which we all witnessed last fall.� Haggans was obviously not good enough last
fall to garner meaningful playing time ahead of the behemoth Jason Gildon.� Yet, the Steelers are paying him starter's
money to assuredly replace Gildon at LOLB.�
When did the Steelers' braintrust decide that Haggans was better than
Gildon?� Perhaps immediately after the
season Cowher had an epiphany?� The
funny thing is the Detroit Lions actually brought Haggans in for a visit and
were looking at him as a special teams player and solid backup OLB, and their
contract offer to him said as much.� But
then again that would make sense, the Lions' organization is proving this
offseason that they are head and shoulders above the Steelers'
organization.� And don't take that as a
tremendous compliment to Millen and Co.�
The Lions have gone out and signed some solid young players (Contract 2
players in Damien Woody and Fernando Bryant) to help turn around a muddling
franchise.� The Steelers have gone out
and signed a 30+ punter to over a million per year, to replace another 30+
punter who was already making over a million per year.� Then they go out and get a 29 year old RB,
perhaps so they can exploit his tremendous 30 something years.� Big stuff.
The latest move, which is surprisingly generating such good vibes on the
message board, is the signing of 29-year-old Duce Staley.� Staley is a complementary RB, who has worked
out well for the most part during his career in Philly.� Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier the
key numbers in this deal are 5 & 29.�
They signed him for 5 years, and he's 29 years old.� Well surely it was a backloaded deal so that
the organization could cut the then 34 year old washed up back.� Wrong again...as the Steelers braintrust
structured the contract in such a way that his lowest base salary comes in year
5.� So who the heck cares how old the
guy is if he can play right?� Well the
fact is, RB is the one position that is greatly affected by age.� This is the one position where you can
certainly see a decline in performance once a RB hits 30.� But hey give the Steelers a break, they have
yet to witness firsthand how a RB can breakdown once he hits 30 (~sarcasm
alert~), and atleast they don't keep making the same mistakes.� The Bus has gotten stronger with age, and I
hear he's going to be in the best shape of his life this summer.� Atleast that's what the Pittsburgh media is
reporting.� In fact, I think in 2006 the
Steelers backfield of the 36-year-old Bettis and the 33-year-old Staley will be
something to behold.� In fact, by then
hopefully the Steelers will have extended them so we can watch these guys tote
the ball into their 40's.� Hey it's
worth the gamble right, this is a franchise with a head coach who put his
energies into signing a "big name?" punter to replace another one all
over some x-mas party spat.� I wonder if
Belichick makes his personnel decisions based on who makes nice with him at the
New England Patriots' X-mas parties.�
Nah, he's too busy preparing for the playoffs and the imminent Super
Bowl victory party that ensues.