Smart Move: Trade Wallace?

we would be happy to take him off your hands!

While Wallace is a good deep threat, the last half of the season has shown he can be completely rendered a non-factor. He lacks physicality to be a great run-after-the-catch receiver, has difficulty adjusting to poorly thrown balls, doesn’t run great routes, and has so-so hands for anything other than the deep, over-the-shoulder-catch. He adds nothing in the return game either. Do we really need a receiver who, despite some minimal improvement this year, is still only a one-trick pony?

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how can you possibly justify stating that:

We could potentially get a first and third rounder for Wallace,

Either your assessment of Wallace is flawed, or the value we could get for him is flawed; your argument does not stand up with both statements being correct.

My premise with Mendenhall was that the running game has become secondary to the passing game, which is why I think it’s all the more crucial we retain the trio of Wallace, Brown, and Sanders. I know that’s gonna be a lot easier said than done, but if it’s possible than I think it’s imperative they get it done. The only way you trade Wallace is if you know for sure you can’t retain Wallace for the long term.

BB is as good IF NOT better than brees!! look where he plays..( domes games per year and that will inflate his numbers dramatically! You want to stop pretending? Lets get a real O-line instead of a bunch of sandbags to protect BB. Lets put the golden boy Brees( who is a class act) on this team with this O-line in front of him and BB on the saints with their O-line in the dome and lets see!! Brees would not even finish the year!

No wind, no snow, no rain! Sure, he numbers will be higher! like I said earlier, lets trade stadiums and o-line and we will see. Betcha brees don’t finish the year! BB takes a lot of punishment and is always on the run..

I don’t think we know his full potential yet. Having said that, if we could get a top 15 1st round and 3rd round pick for him I would have to look very hard at that trade. This team still needs a couple of pieces and WR is where we are deepest atm.

and very good possibility of a new team. I think we make a solid offer but someone will make a bigger one. With that said I would rather trade Wallace and get a 1st round pick this year than getting one via the tender offer in 2013.

Like most, I hope the home town discount will go our way with him. I do agree he needs to work on some things but pulling a double team on almost every play has it’s advantages.
to quote Mr Miyagi " if done right no can defense". That is a different subject that only MT, BB and BA can answer.

Any word on Limas Sweed? Would anyone want him to be invited to training camp or just let it go?

No – wouldn’t consider it unless he is trouble in the locker room. The offense is closer to being dominant for several years than the defense is (given the age of the playmakers). Similar to several other teams I think the Steelers are headed for a really good offense and an average defense that has a few playmakers that can be the difference in a game.

Brown’s skyrocketed. It’s really easy to be a good receiver when the other guy takes a safety and a corner completely away from you every single play. I’m not saying Brown isn’t terrific, because he is, but Wallace makes his life a whole lot easier. Would Sanders garner the same coverage? Probably not. That doesn’t mean Brown won’t still dominate, but I think you are discounting MW. Granted, I’m not paying any WR Larry Fitzgerald money to touch the ball 5 times a game, so if Wallace is wanting that type of money, then sorry bud, there are other positions that are more financially important.

I was just talking with my dad about this yesterday.

Wallace has a very unusual gait. He obviously has incredible straight line speed, but he has little to no ability to change direction and make defenders miss once he is in the open field. This not only hinders his ability to run tight and exact routes, but also his ability to improvise along with Roethlisberger once he breaks containment in the pocket.

If he is not in stride, Wallace never, ever catches the ball with his hands. He ALWAYS cradles the ball against his chest…this leads to a number of drops and also gets him drilled if he has a defender bearing down on him.

Lastly, and most concerning to me, was his drop off in production once Antonio Brown came into his own. He displayed a significant lack of focus over the last 1/4 of the season, with at least one drop in each of the final three games. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but Wallace thought he was top dog (i.e. making the ridiculous proclamation of 2k receiving yards), once Brown emerged it seemed like Wallace went into a shell. Hell, with Brown getting better, one would think that Wallace would only have more opportunities with the focus shifting away from him somewhat.

My verdict: I think his primary asset to the offense is forcing the opposition to respect his big play ability, lulling them to sleep, then hitting on a bomb or two via play action. This isn’t the kind of receiver you pay top dollar for, so if they can gain assets that they need (and his value is likely never going to be higher), I say absolutely pull the trigger. They have Brown, Sanders, Cotchery (hopefully they can resign him), Ward, Miller and Saunders. The offense may miss his home run ability, but I think they will be just fine without him. Hell, they moved on from Holmes pretty well, and he was a MUCH MUCH better player than Mike Wallace will ever be.

Trade a proven commodity for a draft pick(s). It’s been proven over and over that draft picks only have a certain percentage of success. Besides, that’d leave us with Brown, an injury prone Sanders and a soon retiring Ward. Need to keep him.

I wouldn’t trade away Wallace at all. Yeah he has some pros & cons. But every team has that straight line speed WR that can go over the Top. Hell we were looking for one for the longest time& now we have the best one in the NFL. And you dont trade Wallace because Sanders is injury proned sometimes, Ward is done. Our WR’s next yr if we trade him & Ward retires. Brown, Sanders, Cotchery if we re-sign him. That’s why you play your man Mike Wallace. And trading PROVEN TALENT for draft pick(s) that aren’t proven at all is a big risk. Jus draft O-Line, ILB, NT, DB, QB, RB.

He’d jump at the chance.

Too incomplete a wide receiver. Right now he’s playing like one and a half nate washingtons.