IF we can sign him to a reasonable long-term deal, I say it’d be better than a rookie/FA because we know what he can do. Count me as one fan who wants to see Bmac back in a Steelers uniform.

can we put to rest all the ‘McFadden is one of the best free agent CBs out there" crap? How many have signed ahead of him now? Greer, Buchanon, Bartell to name a few. The fact of the matter is, no one has been able to give tangible evidence as to why he was so valuable to this team. Don’t get me wrong, I think he is a good corner. But our pass rush helped him out a ton. He had little impact stats wise this year. I want him to stay, but his value to the team has been overblown by most fans. Gay will be able to step up and do just as adequate a job as Mac.

2.5-3 Million a year. Period.

He was broken for several weeks and we survived just fine. He is a great player, but we have plenty of them.

We still gotta re-work Deebo too ya know.

McFadden is not such a special CB that the Steelers would pay a premium for him. If he stays, great, because he knows the defense. If he leaves he can be replaced by William Gay and they draft somebody who can replace Townsend at some point. The Steelers may still have to draft a safety unless the team thinks Ryan Mundy can do the job. Anthony Smith has been cut and Tyrone Carter is really slow. We definitely need another safety (or two!) no matter what happens to McFadden.

You mentioned even releasing Deshea. Man. Thats something I hadnt pondered but almost isnt terrible.

Still somehow he found the fountain of youth and has kicked some butt in the last year or two. Hard to let that guy go.

What we have here is a good problem. Too many good players to choose from :D

I do personally think we should resign him, and CERTAINLY think he deserved the nod before Kemo-therapy.

Igor Olshansy would be a great signing for us. He is 6’6" and strong as a grizzly.
He would be a great backup if we could sign him. He is far better than Eason, and Roye is gone. We need some strength there and Igor turns 27 in May, so he is young. Our d-line is old. I would actually rather sign Igor and let McFadden pine for the big bucks, and move Gay up to full-time starter. When Aaron Smith went out last year, we were getting blown back a bit on the line late in the year. Igor doesn’t get blown back much.

Finally, I would look at anothe nickel such as Rolle (when he gets cut possibly) or even McAllister if health allows. This all must be done in conjunction with signing the Silverback of course.

With Kevin Colbert coming out and saying after he signed Chris K. that he feels good about the team’s ability to resign most of their free agents, you think he knew something that we didn’t? I am shocked that BMac hasn’t signed yet and it looks pretty good for the Steelers. I don’t buy the team can’t do anything because it only has $5M to $6M in cap room left. This team will get the BMac deal done if he comes in pretty close to their numbers.

I don’t think Chris Carr would be a bad fall back option, but why settle for less when you can get the original? I will go out on a limb and say that BMac comes back and that the Steelers 1st pick in this year’s draft will be Jarron Gilbert, DE, San Diego State. No. 2 is C Eric Wood, Louisville, No. 3 G/T- Jamon Meredith, South Carolina, No. 3B – WR/KR/PR Mike Wallace, Missippi.

I try not to worry too much about cap-space implications regarding players because while salaries are public knowledge, there are a number of different ways that teams can work their numbers to get under the cap that we, as fans, can only guess at. Any player deemed necessary to the team can be signed, it just depends on the value the team wants to place on him and the extent to which other parts of the salary structure can be juggled to make it happen. Finding an extra $1-2 million to sign McFadden might be challenging but far from impossible for the people in the FO. I agree with datruth in that a contract of between $5-6 million for BMac is probably do-able for the Steelers.

As for Foote, he is the same position as any veteran anywhere who is getting starter’s money but not starting. Townsend is not getting starter’s money so the savings of cutting him are minimal and he certainly brings some value to the field (and as Blitz points out, the locker room). Foote, considering his contract lasts only one more year and he is making decent money, will probably play less next year and would have some mid-draft value to all the new teams switching to 3-4 defenses, is on much shakier ground. The same could be true for Willie Parker. If Mendenhall hadn’t been injured last year it’s quite possible he would have become the No. 1 back by the end of the season and all of us would be wondering whether Parker’s $3.35 million base salary, in the last year of his contract and with Moore as a capable backup, couldn’t be put to better use somewhere else. It’s something the FO might still be thinking about, for all we know. That’s what I mean about the salary cap game being very tough for us fans to play. It’s a jigsaw puzzle we can’t put together because we don’t know how much the shapes of some big pieces can be changed at any moment, and also because the FO is simultaneously working on the salary cap jigsaw puzzles for 2010 and 2011.

Datruth, love your first four picks for the Steelers. However, I think Wood and Meredith will both be gone before our second pick. Meredith is edging up near first-round status He has tested very well and is being evaluated as a LT prospect after switching to guard his senior season. NFL Draft Scout has him rated the No. 7 OT prospect and 56th overall, slightly ahead of Wood (59th). Gilbert in the first round and any of the other those three other OL (Mack, Wood, Meredith) in the second round would be a great first day of the draft, even if we have to move up to get them as would seem likely.