I thought I was the first to the news on the Behind the Steel Curtain twitter account: http://twitter.com/btsteelcurtain/status/1228097632

I hope this is just a precursor to them signing him to a 4-5 year contract.

Guys,

I believe that this is the first step in the Steelers working out a long-term deal with Starks. I like the fact that they made a decision that this will be their LT right now and for the near future. He just turned 27 years-old, still has some upside and you have won 2 Super Bowls with him starting on your OL. This means that Marvel Smith is gone and you can turn the page.

I think we all should keep our fingers crossed that with Starks in house now, the team can try to get B. McFadden wrapped up with a long-term deal. The money thrown around so far for Asouma of the Raiders and K. Haynden for the Colts isn’t that encouraging.

On the other hand, let’s find a bookend for Starks on the right side (Loadholt or Tupuo?) and some depth along both lines and get ready to go get another championship. This move was quite a stunner though.

Thoughts?

I think this year they work out the long term deal he deserves. I know he has his detractors, but I like the guy…he’s young but played on both recent SB OLines, performed very well at times (yes, I know not so well at others), didn’t bitch and moan about not playing, and a team player.

I love the sound bite of Starks right before our last SB drive…“we were built for this!!” “Lets go…it’s our game.” (or words to that effect). That’s what I want my starting LT to say…

I would think since they are plunking down the cash on Starks they should be able to go to Smith with a cheap deal and maybe get him to bite. Marvel Smith is in a bad situation at the moment and I hope it works out in the Steeler’s favor. I think he would be a good fit at backup tackle considering his durability.

Looks to me like last year, they’re trying to allow themselves to draft best player available and not reach for need.

Hadn’t seen that before (h/t here)

First of all hes my favorite lineman out of the bunch.

Secondly, the franchise 1 year deal is not the word of god. It can be revoked by signing the person to an actual real long term deal. This doesnt always happen.

To me he has played excellently and at two positions for 2 super bowls.

I think now, we release Marvel Smith, Keep Colon as a RFA and Tony Hills challenges him, and then look to fill a hole at LG

Considering the team paid about $13.5 million last year for their LOT position between Smith and Starks, this is a good move. Even if they don’t juggle the books by signing Starks to a long-term deal, by cutting Smith, resigning Colon for his cheap RFA tender ($1.5 million) and passing on Kemo, there is potentially room to allocate financial resources to other positions and still allow the team to pursue a quality FA such as Jason Brown or retaining McFadden.

Well, we’re overpaying again … but I guess we need to keep him. Sigh …

I’m not happy about this move, but it doesn’t make me too angry either.

Guys,

The Steelers hit Starks with a “non-exclusive” franchise tag. Here is what that means:

A non-exclusive franchise player is offered a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at his position in the 2008 season, or a 20 percent salary increase, whichever is greater. The offering club does not hold exclusive negotiating rights, and the player can negotiate with other clubs. The original club may match any offer to retain the player, or receive two first-round draft choices as compensation if it elects not to match. The signing period for non-exclusive franchise players is from Feb. 27 through July 15. After this date the player may only sign a one-year tender for the next season.

This means that the Steelers have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal with Starks, or he’ll just revert to the one-year, $8.45M contract. That is plenty of time to get something done. And trust me, Starks wants to get something done this year and not have to go through this process again next year. Why? Because the difference of getting a long-term deal done now versus next year could be the difference between $8.45M now or $20M to $25M guaranteed now with the potential to earn millions more.

The Steelers still have $12M in cap room now plus the ability to add to that by giving Starks a long-term deal and redoing the contracts of Big Snack, H. Ward, Troy and Ben (Hines and Snack would be extended two years while Troy and Ben would receive some of their 2009 base salary in a bonus to be further spread through their contract. Another $3M can be made available by just releasing Kendall Simmons. Excuse me for being pessimistic, but I’m officially off the K. Simmons bandwagon as a starter for this team. In other words, I just don’t believe that dog will hunt anymore.

I do hope they can get something done with BMac. There isn’t a corner coming out this year that would be a better player than BMac in LeBeau’s D next year. The reasons are because: he knows the defense, has the talent and intelligence to play man or zone, will knock your aarrsssss into next week and can actually catch the damn ball (not unlike Ike Taylor). It would suck to have a potential Pro Bowl corner just about to hit his prime leave.

I expect the team to work out much smaller deals for T. Essex and Keyaron Fox in the weeks to come. The team will probably give a second-round tender for Willie Colon (and then hopefully move him inside to guard, please).

Who thinks K. Colbert can wrap up B. McFadden before free agency kicks off on Feb. 27?

Wasn’t expecting this at least not until after the combine. Just a thought Starks has kind of got the shaft by the coaches and FO the last 2 years ( other than last years pay check). If I remember right, Starks said he never was in talks with the FO last year. They just placed the Trans tag on him, and he didn’t know when he needed to sign it. I think this is a show of good faith from the FO that we are serious about getting him in a long term contract.

I am fine with this, and hopefully we get a decent long term contract. The Steelers know him and he knows the system, and we all know the Steelers weren’t going to be able to draft a blue chip LT or was going to sign a high price FA.

so many were so down on Starks. And still don’t understand how they could prefer Colon over him at RT. Others have said this already but it bears repeating; the man has performed admirably in two SBs and has now has two rings to show for it. He comes from very good stock, and even if he doesn’t improve one bit he’s good enough!

With Starks and Hartwig in place there are any number of scenarios that could play out favorably for the team which means that, yes, best player available is once more on the table. I agree with Datruth and others that Bmac can become our #1 priority now if we so choose. I think keeping that defensive group as much intact as possible can be the key to deep playoff runs for the foreseeable future. I would also do what we can to retain Nate, but I am a Nate guy. At this point I would even say that D-line issues now are as least as important. BTW coaches and FO are at the Combine and that will probably point of focus for the next week.

He has so much value with this team though because we don`t have much as far as tackles. I was actually surprised with how well Starks played this year. He has great left tackle size at 6`8 330 and is still pretty young, so i completely agree with keeping him. Who else would we have to play LT? Draft one in the late 1st round and hope he can cut it? Put Essex or Tony Hills over there? Or perhaps spend out of our ears for a free agent LT like Gross from the Panthers. I am sure the FO saw this as the best bet.

Hey RC, Interesting point. I don’t know if trading or cutting Foote would be a successful means to providing for BMac’s contract amount. Anyone?

McFadden is clearly talented, but we did so well without him that I do not see him getting a big contract from us. The Ravens need him more (shiver). Wonder if Rosenhaus will use that as a barganing chip.

Now that we know Starks will be around next year, we can now move on to our other priority Bryant McFadden. We can cut Townsend and his 2 mill? salary and put it toward signing McFadden to a long term deal.

Upabob says Ben was almost as many times as Matt Cassell. Hmm, he plays for the Pats. So how come we don’t see extensive discussion of how the Pats Oline sucks? I in agreement with Arn; what kind of standard are you operating on and does it make sense?

Let’s remember a couple of things here; offensive line is unit play. A breakdown or bad play with a portion of that unit can make everyone look bad. Example: last year’s Oline played badly, and we had Faneca (and his play sucked too!). Alan is now with the Jets and making the Pro Bowl. You can cite all kinds of contributing reasons; new system, the coach, bad blood over change at HC, whatever. There also seems to be some mob psychology going on. ‘Everyone’, including a significant number of fans and the punditocracy seems to believe that the Oline should be mostly expelled from the NFL. One question; what the Hell do these people know? How many of the pundits, Steeler Nation, and a good number of folks who are regular contributors to BTSC wrote the ‘08 team off early, middle and late because of the schedule, the coaching on offense and that ’terrible’ Oline? Well, as they say, Scoreboard!! If I were Tomlin or the FO what credibility do these opinions possibly have in their minds?

Here’s the deal from my perspective; yes this Oline is not the crew we had that had three Pro Bowl performers (Smith, Faneca and Hartings), but one of them is still here as well as two others from the SB 40 squad. The two most experienced players (Smith and Simmons) are on IR almost the entire year. Ben likes to extend plays and is good at it. The down side is that few Olinemen look good after trying to hold a block for seven seconds and there will be sacks. Interpretation; Sacks equal incompetent Oline. FWP spends two thirds of the year either out or well below 100%. #2 Mendenhall is on IR. At one point we’re pulling running backs in from off the street. Rushing stats are down. Interpretation; incompetent OLine.

Listen, I’m not trying to say that this group doesn’t need help. But remember, this group was at the center of a championship drive that will be historic. And, having watched it again today, the group (minus Kemo’s holding penalty) performed magnificently. Watch the line play on the touchdown pass to Holmes. No one was near Ben. As I said earlier in the thread Max is at least good enough, and short of working out a quick long term deal, was sensible to tag (and was the right choice among himself, Smith and Essex. It would have been crazy for the Steelers to let all three go). They need a couple of more pieces, either to replace what they lose in FA and/or to improve the quality, depth and cohesion of what they have. They don’t have to rush or panic. It’s a high priority, but only one of several, and with Starks tagging, not the most urgent or the most important at this moment.

Without going into all the whys and wherefores of evaluation, I think we would all agree that the O-line needs improvement. How that might or should happen is the main focus of off-season debate. There is no question the line was good enough to help win a Super Bowl, because that’s exactly what happened albeit by the narrowest of margins (43 seconds). As for the final drive, had Ben been sacked on 1st and 20 (as probably all 31 other starting QBs in the league would have been on that play), then I would suggest the furor over OL performance would be double what it is today. Does Ben convert 2nd-and-30 from the shadows of his goal line? I am so glad we didn’t have to find out.

The “mob psychology” reference might or might not be accurate. But putting aside for the moment evaluation of the specifics of this past season, I think there is a recent history of decisions made by the organization that has contributed to the current state of affairs and the overall sense of concern shared by the majority of fans.

Prime example, Max Starks. A four-year veteran who has started for two SB winners, is rewarded with two lucrative contracts making him one of the highest paid OL in the NFL, and yet judged a backup by the coaches for the past two seasons. He wasn’t even the first guy off the bench when Marvel Smith got hurt (Essex played instead initially). Is he a chronic underachiever or, based on his salary, a potential Pro Bowler? This is a question even the organization can’t seem to answer, let alone us fans.

Another example, financial commitments to Kendall Simmons. His play clearly declined in 2006 (as did many players in the SB hangover season) and he also had a history of injury and health issues. But when negotiations with Faneca went sour the team gave him what amounted to one of the most lucrative contract extensions in team history AFTER publicly announcing he was in a battle for the RG starting spot with Chris Kemoeatu. His play further declined last year and he got injured again this year; we’re now stuck with a huge salary albatross.

Another example, Sean Mahan. Who is responsible for the evaluation that a part-time guard could become a starting center? Not the fans. To the team’s credit they recognized the mistake and brought in Hartwig, a noticeable upgrade but not a long-term solution.

Another example, drafting. In a 10-year period from from 1998-2007 there were 12 OL selected from rounds 3-7 and the best one of that bunch is Max Starks, which brings us back to Point 1. What exactly do we have? My own feeling is that we have a very poor offensive line that needs a significant input of talent over the next 2-3 years.

I would respectfully disagree with your conclusion that offensive line is “not the most urgent” positional challenge facing this team.