McFadden signs with the Steelers... of the West(Cards)

by SteelerBrazil on Mar 8, 2009 5:41 PM EDT Comment 39 comments

http://www.azcardinals.com/news/detail.php?PRKey=2928

McFadden is expected to compete with veteran Rod Hood for a starting job opposite second-year man Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. The move bolsters the Cards’ secondary, after a 2008 season when soon-to-be-departing Eric Green fell out of favor and the nickel position was manned by veteran Ralph Brown.

The move also should allow Antrel Rolle to focus on playing free safety and not have to worry about filling the slot cornerback role.

Well, I think he has been kinda overrated by us. I know he is a great talent, but I dont think our team will miss him that much. I hope so!

Now we need to focus on get a new deal to Deebo

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I posted on this too

but I erased it. Anyways, I’m thinking he was asking for too much money. Hopefully we get William Gay to step up in case Townsend has lost a step. I’m looking forward to seeing much more of #22 and maybe we can draft a decent CB for depth in the later rounds.

This is Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu getting knocked around by the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii yesterday...
Minutes later, Troy caught the ocean going over the middle and smacked it right in the mouth. The ocean fumbled, Troy recovered and ran it into the endzone. The ocean never messed with Troy again.

by paulamalu on Mar 8, 2009 5:47 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Couldn't have been for much

more than the Steelers offered. His agent, Rosenhaus , is a jackass who can’t be reasoned with. The deal was for only two years which I believe was the shortest deal of all the free agent cornerbacks. That speaks volumes. His past play didn’t warrant a big payday. I wonder if BMac will show his Superbowl ring at a dinner function with his new Cardinal buddies.

by Dr Del on Mar 8, 2009 5:57 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Wow

There’s gonna be some weird feelings on that team. I mean, signing a player that you lost to in a previous SuperBowl? I’m guessing this is some conspiracy and that Whis is gonna steal McFadden’s ring for himself or something.

by paulamalu on Mar 8, 2009 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

you are on to something.

this is as close as Arizona is ever going to get to a ring. or perhaps Whiz wants to rub that ring in the team’s nose to make them hungry enough to try again this Fall.

by SteelersVT on Mar 9, 2009 11:40 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lol

Dont forget Whiz has his own ring

by Mechem on Mar 9, 2009 10:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He didn't want to give up his own

so he decided to give the rest of the Cardinals a piece of McFadden’s. Btw, I was wondering, and maybe this sounds stupid, but McFadden will get his ring right? It’s just that I remember a player on the Giants that was traded in the offseason after their win and he supposedly didn’t get a ring?

by paulamalu on Mar 9, 2009 10:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

They hocked it

just kidding. He will get it. I heard that too (about the Giant player), but I think he finally got it. Also heard here something about freeagents not getting bonuses for the Super Bowl. That was the Cards though right? I’ve read so much stuff I can’t remember when or where I read it.

"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)

by PixburghArn on Mar 10, 2009 9:16 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not happy about this turn of events, but I’m going to stay positive. Maybe now we can focus on signing Deebo.

By the way, terms were listed here…

Former Steelers cornerback Bryant McFadden agreed to terms on a two-year, $10 million contract with the Cardinals on Sunday, team officials announced.

by Varmint on Mar 8, 2009 5:59 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Two years?

I’m curious why the Cards would sign him for just two years. Perhaps it’s protection if he gets injured? I’m not sure what Wiz is thinking on this one. There’s no way we’d sign him for that short a period.

Either way, BMac is chasing money by demanding short term contracts, I’d guess. Oh well. Good luck BM.

Right on Varmint, let’s sign Deebo.

4 positions to improve this draft: an OLman, a CB, a DLman and a WR. (I might add best available LB to that list, depending on our special teams guys). Now that Bmac’s out of the picture, maybe we can shore up one of these positions through free agency.

Gay will no doubt have some troubles this year. But I think he’ll serve quite well.

by betelgeuse on Mar 8, 2009 6:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Traitor!

And he just had to go to the Cardinals. The only teams worse than that are the Patriots and Ravens.

J Mike

by air holmes on Mar 8, 2009 6:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

really?

Who hates the Cards? I actually root for Steelers West a little. I like Whis and Grimm, they helped win the Steelers a SB. Hell you could argue that they helped win them 2.

by Chicago Steeler on Mar 9, 2009 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I dunno,

I like the cardinals to a point, but they are SUPER CHEAP…and not in a good way.

There are stories about the Cardinals fed-exing players their paychecks and they take the 11 dollars it cost to mail out of their paycheck.

Also it was reported after the superbowl that the Cardinals didn’t pay the coaches that left for other jobs the bonus that all coaches got for going to the superbowl.

Plus Kurt Warners holyness gets on my nerves a lot.

I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!

by drinkyourmilkshake on Mar 9, 2009 3:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wow

I had heard they were cheap, but I also heard that with the son running things, that mentality had changed.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Mar 9, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

from what I have read, it is much improved from when his dad owned things...

But like I said about the superbowl bonuses, that was just a few weeks ago.

Just an F.Y.I, after the media found out about the coaches not being paid the Cardinals did in fact say they would pay the coaches and the reason it was messed up originally was a “clerical error.”

I'll drink your Milkshake, I'll drink it up!

by drinkyourmilkshake on Mar 9, 2009 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, that's what got my attention (the SB bonuses)

Clerical Error – good one. :)

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Mar 9, 2009 4:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

if the cards had

been playing anyone else, I would have been rooting for them. It’s tough not to like them, with so many former steelers on the team. Although, the bitterness of their ‘fans’ after the game kinda bothered me. I’m sick of there being controversy after SB wins.

by steelerark on Mar 9, 2009 4:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

True

But, I would have been pulling for the Seahawks against anyone else, too. I guess you have to expect homerism bitterness from the fans of the losing team. I still don’t see a legitimate argument that the refs favored the Steelers in SB XL. There were two close calls that either cost them points or took them out of scoring position. Yet, both were on first down. Good teams overcome 1st and 20s. They did absolutely nothing. And they were close calls, not obvious wrong calls. In fact, IMO, the offensive PI call was an obvious correct call.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Mar 9, 2009 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

From the sounds of the terms of the contract he’s basically got a 1 year $5M deal. They signed him for 2 but all the gauranteed money is up front this year, next year none is gauranteed. I guess I’m biased but what the hell is this guy thinking?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

F him!

Go William Gay!

by Silverback92 on Mar 8, 2009 6:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The contract

the deal consists of a two-year, $10 million contract.

I dont think the steelers wouldve gone close to that much. He was certainly a good talent, but the steelers werent gonna pay him starter money for a backup. William Gay will be able to fill his shoes properly IMO

by steelersfan86 on Mar 8, 2009 7:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think they Steelers could have

given him a better long term deal. Maybe he just thought that he’d beat out Hood, then get his big payday next year from the Cards, or in two years from someone else.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Mar 8, 2009 7:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

the Steelers, that is

not they Steelers

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Mar 8, 2009 7:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If they could have

then why didn’t they? Did the Steelers ever even make an offer?

by worldtrip on Mar 8, 2009 7:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

My understanding is that they had an offer on the table before FA started. I don’t remember specific stories saying that, but I’m sure that I read on one of the PPG links or Lolley links that the FO had an offer on the table. The FO never made it public, of course.

We don’t know that they didn’t offer him a better long term deal than the 2 year/$10M deal he took. If they did, my guess would be that they offered him something in that range per year, but he wanted something in the range of $7-8 or 9M/year. Since he wasn’t getting that, he may have wanted a shorter deal, thinking he could drive up his value by starting for a year or two.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Mar 8, 2009 8:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

A very strange situation

I think we’re going to get some interesting details or more likely speculation about how things went in this negotiation for McFadden. Here’s a part of the Arizona Republic story on the signing:

McFadden’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said the broken arm made it difficult for McFadden to get a longer deal. “I really think he’s an $8 million a year player,” Rosenhaus said.

Earlier, the Sporting News reported the Steelers had offered McFadden $6.5 million a year on a long-term deal, prior to the start of free agency. That may or may not be the case but $6.5 million is not unreasonable considering the other contracts offered to cornerbacks comparable to McFadden (Bartel, Goodman).

It looks like with the market not responding to Rosenhaus’ estimate of what McFadden should get, they instead went with a short-term offer that might allow him to get a big payday two years down the road when he is still relatively young. It’s an interesting gamble on his part because if he gets injured (again) or doesn’t produce, then he will probably end up making less during the prime years of his career than what the Steelers “reportedly” had put on the table a few weeks ago. The other unanswered part of this is why, if the Steelers had been prepared to pay him $6.5 million, they wouldn’t have offered a better short-term deal than what he got from Arizona. Very puzzling all round but we should get better information on this in the next week or so.

However the bottom line is that we will need to sign a FA like Chris Carr, draft a CB, and probably both. I’m fairly confident in Gay but we’re an Ike Taylor injury away from a starting CB duo of Gay and Townsend, with no nickel back with NFL experience. The positive side of all this is that money potentially eaten up by McFadden can be used elsewhere, perhaps in the form of two budget FAs at CB and OL.

by steeler.lifer on Mar 8, 2009 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Steelers short term deal

My guess would be that they didn’t want a short term deal because then they’d have to go through all of this again in two years. They did what they usually do; they offered him slightly above what his market value for this year was, but they didn’t play the games that will give them possible headaches down the road. This is assuming the report about the $6.5 M/year offer is accurate.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Mar 9, 2009 9:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

BMac

was a good player and I liked him.

However, we may be able to pick up a CB in the draft, who is more of a play maker, with better ball skills and some return ability.

by SteelerMike on Mar 8, 2009 9:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Only CB I'd like to see in the draft is Mike Mickens out of Cincy

I saw a short blurb on him and he and his family are Steeler fans.

No, In all seriousness, I think Willie Gay has the talent to take over, but if we do indeed draft a CB, it should be in the second round.

To the tune of the classic children's song "This Old Man" (the part with nick nack patty whack)

Big Snack, Silverback, take the Dawg Pound's Bone, the Black and Gold sent the Brownies crying home.

by HighSchoolSteeler on Mar 8, 2009 10:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He's a baller

My son played with him at Wayne High. Good kid. Wayne puts out good kids. I may put a post out with some info on him and some other Wayne grads. :)

"The team that scores the most points wins."
John Madden
(Master of the obvious)

by PixburghArn on Mar 9, 2009 9:49 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You cant pay em all

The D didnt miss a beat with Gay in place of B-Mac this year and his fate was determined right then, just like Harrison and Joey Porter. The next guy is ready and there are many other areas of need in the next few years. Gm’s have to look to the future or you end up like the Redskins. Ben and Troy are locked up but Harrison, Miller, Holmes, and Woodley , are due for their second (and usually biggest) nfl contracts over the next few years and Hampton or Smith may get a decent (discounted) third contract ala Farrior and Bettis. With the cap you have to draft well and rely on young cheap over-achievers in some spots, then strike gold with a Deebo and a Fwp and you get a couple rings (maybe). Its astounding they won it all dressing 7 o-lineman who collectively were paid like Fanaca and Hutchinson combined, and 4 relatively cheap rbs, usually some big ticket atheletes there, but that wont last. Soon they’ll be paying for some O lineman, homegrown or otherwise. Memdenhall will be awesome, get paid and Willie will go play for Cowher. etc. etc.

by Micculus on Mar 8, 2009 11:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Chris Carr, Leigh Bodden come on down?

Guys,

If I know Kevin Colbert like I know Kevin Colbert, I think he’ll have either Chris Carr or Leigh Bodden wrapped up by Tuesday with a 4-year deal. BMac essentially got a 1-year deal for $5M and still hopes to hit it big next year in a year without a cap. I doubt if the Cardinals will pay him $5M in base salary next year — he’ll either get an extension or he’ll get cut.

I expect to see Carr or Bodden get the contract that they were offering BMac. I kind of like Chris Carr, which would take care of our return problems. I also think this means that CB could end up being a 2nd round pick. Three names to keep in mind are Sean Smtih from Utah, Coye Francis and Darius Butler from UConn. I am disappointed that BMac didn’t sign. He obviously wanted the one year pay day, and I wonder if knowing that William Gay was there to compete with in Pittsburgh had something to do with that as well. Oh well, change is inevitable.

It’d be nice to see us pick off someonelse’s young, on the rise prospects instead of our players always geting picked off.

Thoughts?

by datruth4life on Mar 8, 2009 11:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Word Truth

I honestly hate seeing a developed draft pick leave town. The whole point of drafting them is to have them for a long time and see them grow.

But yeah it would be nice to pull the same move on a early 20’s guy.

by Mechem on Mar 9, 2009 12:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Would be nice but ...

I agree with you datruth but good young players coming off their first contract are players that some team will overpay. Usually it is a team that A) chronically overspends; or B) has done a poor job of building its roster and needs to spend money to compensate for its inability to have a backup ready to step in; or C) both of the above. The Steelers don’t overspend (Max Starks aside) and, knowing a player might leave, usually have a guy they are grooming who can step in. That’s why we’re going to have to draft a CB this year fairly high, maybe even the first round. Gay is entering the final year of his contract in 2009 and Townsend has only a couple years left. Ike Taylor will be a free agent two years from now. Still it hurts when we can’t keep highly-drafted, talented guys like McFadden, Hope, Randle El, Burress (even though we didn’t miss him), Searcy and a few others over the years.

I think in Keyaron Fox and Mewelde Moore we added two young guys on the rise who were under the radar and can contribute even more over the next 2-3 years than they did this past season. Chris Carr might fit the mold too and it would be great to get him locked up.

by steeler.lifer on Mar 9, 2009 12:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kinda lame

2 years 5 million. Not ridiculous. I kinda cant believe he leaves for that. Especially to Arizona. They are gonna blow. Oh well.

The kid could really have had a very illustrious career here.

Its easier said than done but if you honestly wisely place a couple million dollars you’ll never need to work again. These guys gotta put it in perspective. For 2.5-3 million he’d still be rich, and have probably a lot more great stories to tell the kids. But hey money talks. He earned it.

by Mechem on Mar 9, 2009 12:09 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm angry

Can’t Ken Whisenhunt keep his hands off Steelers players. First he brings Grimm and a couple of former role-players down to the desert, then this year he tries to bring in LeBeau’s successor to DC to take over as AZ’s DC, now he grabs McFadden!! Couple that with the highlights I’ve watched of Whis on the sidelines and his coaching style, and I’ve decided that Ken is overrated. Creativity?! Come on, he has all the coaching charisma of a mailbox and 0 personnel creativity. Ken, stop trying to be the Steelers at the Steelers’ expense!!

by sylvansteeler on Mar 9, 2009 9:53 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He’s being very intelligent. When you’re looking for players to build up a dying/dead system you take them from the best system you know, in his case the Steelers.

To be fair I’m surprised that Steelers players don’t do better over all coming off their first contracts. You spend time with a quality organization you’re more likely to develop good work habits and the like.

It’s like wanting to hire a developer who worked for Google. You know they hire good people there and train them well. Or maybe that’s only a good analogy for us programming geek looking for good hires.

by Chicago Steeler on Mar 9, 2009 5:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

colbert

used to scout for the lions and look at how many ex-lions we grab.

by 36chambers on Mar 9, 2009 11:05 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

don't be mad at Wiz

it’s just the nature of the business. Coaches like players they are familiar with. Grimm was going to leave anyway and BMac is the first player of any value to go to Cards. But remember, we chose not to offer a long term deal so FO was prepared to lose him. Look at Rex Ryan taking some Ravens with him and maybe more to come…that would be iritating.

Gay can fill in quite nicely. But, if we pay attention to what Kevin Colbert was saying in the papers a few weeks ago, there is no question he takes a CB high in the draft, 3rd round at the latest.

by SteelerMike on Mar 9, 2009 11:59 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree with several of the ideas here.

I think BMac is very good and one season away from becoming great. However, he is still unproven potential, not guaranteed pro-bowl material. The sort-term deal is almost a “trial membership”. Arizona pays out a modest penny, but the team is not locked into a deal that will bite them in the buttockamus if BMac doesn’t meet his potential.

I suspect BMac was attracted to this deal because of the guaranteed money. We might’ve signed him to a 2 year deal, but I have no clue if our FO would have put so much of it up front. It’s not unreasonable to assume BMac was also looking over his shoulder for William Gay. Money up front would be important had he stayed here in competition with the young upstart.

As for whether or not Gay can step up and replace BMac, I’ve already written enough about that. The short answer is: nobody knows.

I am suspect on the notion that we’ll pick up Carr or Bodden. Bodden left NE without much fanfare and the only news since is that they signed Springs. You can say whatever you want about the Pats*, but you can’t fault Belichick’s eye for talent. I’ve also read that Carr is already scheduled to sit down with quite a few teams. I don’t want us getting involved in a bidding war.

by Varmint on Mar 9, 2009 12:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs