I shudder to think of the signing bonus, but to get this deal done, and to get it done now, bodes very very well.

Hello big money, here comes your extension.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4281262

$10 mil guaranteed…that’s an incredible deal the steelers brokered given the franchise hole they put themselves in.

Always felt Max was a serviceable lineman. Always felt that Z&A unfairly castigated him to the bench so they could play lesser talent like Essex and Colon. Always held it against Z&A and used it as evidence that they have no clue on evaluating talent.
Happy for Max that he now has a long term deal and some security. Happy for the FO that they finally got the coaches to come around and evaluate Starks properly. Also thrilled we will free up a little cap space either here or down the road and can now concentrate on other areas of need.

Now let’s get the rest of the men signed.

Personally, the only remaining contract, other than Zigford, that I would like to see extended this camp is Heath’s. The others can all wait. Maybe Reed. I should think he’ll be expecting somewhere north of what Houston just extended our old "friend’ Kris Brown (reportedly 4 yr / $10 million). He certainly deserves to be paid better from my perspective and I very much want to keep sheetz around but I dunno if the FO has cleared up that kind of scratch for this season.

That Max won’t be in the discussion to franchise or transition next year, which keeps those tags open for others (one if CBA is reached or two if not). That’s another advantage to this signing. Considering we were already in the hole for $8 this year, $26 over four years might be an indication that Max indeed honored a commitment to get a longer deal done, and if that’s true, he’s the kind of guy we want to stay in the family.

I’ll echo what maryrose mentioned and say that we should all give props to Big Max for signing a reasonable deal. He easily could have waited this out and made the franchise pay for the dilemma we got ourselves into. Instead, he did what appears to be a rather selfless thing (in relative terms… I get that $10 million guaranteed is not entirely selfless). If the flexibility to sign others (Heath!) his contract provides brings us another Lombardi, he should immediately be named team MVP. You’re a good man, Max Starks!

Starks has improved in the last couple of years, but I’ve always thought he was lazy. Again, he’s improved now but in the past I remember him either looking the wrong way or simply standing around while Ben was in trouble. I can’t be the only one with this opinion of him…

He’s a very intelligent guy though, I’ll agree on that. His career will not stop after he’s done playing. I’ve always figured that his character was one of the main reasons we were keeping him around.

Now i want to see some improvement on the field from Starks too