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With a report breaking Wednesday evening that Steelers restricted free agent nose tackle Steve McLendon having talked to the Green Bay Packers, the initial reaction was that of concern.
The Steelers would be down to just Hebron Fangupo and the infamous Alameda Ta'amu at the position.
Observer-Reporter's Dale Lolley suggested, in the event McLendon would leave, the team would have to look into signing Casey Hampton.
If McLendon would sign with Green Bay, #Steelers would be forced to re-sign Casey Hampton
— Dale Lolley (@dlolleyor) April 18, 2013
It would make sense. Hampton would cost less than McLendon's tag cost, and the lack of depth they have would require a veteran presence at least come in to compete in training camp.
Would Hampton come back for veteran minimum scratch, though?
The Captain Smartass tweet of the night goes to this guy:
#Steelers are letting McLendon visit teams? He not old enough or injured enough to keep
— Kipper (@pghsportsforum) April 18, 2013
Looking at the situation top to bottom, it really won't take much for a team to sign McLendon if they wanted to. However, a clear point is the Packers, who just signed Clay Matthews to a five-year, $66 million deal with $31 million guaranteed, could be dangling the idea of bringing McLendon in to help make a point to B.J. Raji, Matthews' 2009 Draft classmate.
It's possible McLendon could simply have made a trip to get in Raji's head, and to possibly kick the tires on next year's free agency market.
That makes the odds of losing McLendon now just as cloudy, but another tweet summarizes the feeling of many.
Would not be surprised at all if the Steelers lose McLendon.
— Chris (@ChrisG_FC) April 18, 2013