UUUUUMMMMMMMM, SCRATCH THAT OFF THE LIST!!

[FISHINGURU]

Mike Wallace wants to be paid like Larry Fitzgerald

Wonder why your team hasn’t been in hot pursuit of Mike Wallace, the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver that would seemingly offer good value even tendered at the highest level as a restricted free agent?

Well, Wallace is shooting for the moon. And then some. Just because you want to make a deal with Wallace doesn’t mean it will happen.

The Steelers are in a tight salary-cap position that they’ve tried to massage by releasing a handful of veteran players. If a team signs Wallace to an offer sheet and the Steelers elect (or cannot) match it, the price tag is a first-round draft pick. For teams in the second half of the first round, it looks enticing. But then you have to consider the contract you’ll have to pay Wallace vs. the slotted deal that will go to a first-round draft pick.

That is where there is a big issue. A huge one, according to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. The 25-year-old Wallace is seeking a blockbuster contract. Per Barrows, he wants a deal that eclipses the $120 million, eight-year package that Larry Fitzgerald received from the Arizona Cardinals. That should be about the end of the discussion right there.

Wallace has been a terrific deep threat for the Steelers and he’s a talented performer worthy of a long-term investment. But a Fitzgerald pay day? A Calvin Johnson pay day? Not now.

Wallace can potentially be an unrestricted free agent next year if the Steelers can’t get a deal done with him or elect not to use the franchise tag. Right now, Wallace has to be looking ahead to that because no one is going to fork over a first rounder and a Fitzgerald-type deal for Wallace. Per Barrows, the San Francisco 49ers explored the option. Surely, the sticker shock sent them running for cover.

[mnviking28]

Using his logic, that must mean that Wes Welker must be worth even more than Fitz. Gotta love these prima donna wide receivers that have a couple of good years and then think they are now the best thing since sliced bread. Good greif!!

[zepman]

We would have had to use our #3 pick to get him anyway...can't trade back into the 1st to make an offer on him. Have to use your slotted 1st rounder to pry him away from the Steelers

[mnviking28]

So does restricted free agency end with the draft? If not, what is to keep a team from trying to sign a guy after the draft and giving up next years number one instead?

[klecker]

Why not CJ's numbers?

[mrklean]

yea hes nuts hes good by hot Fitz good

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

yeah so much for wallace... Good luck gettin someone to pay you fitzy money their mike! But i guess you gotta start high and come down in a contract negotiation! But he may be high literally and figuratively with that non-sense.

[FISHINGURU]

But i guess you gotta start high

Sounds to me like he's plenty high.

[FutbolGuru]

While it'd be a good addition... he's not worth the same value to the Vikes as he is to a team with a big armed QB like the Steelers. Ponder doesn't have the same arm and I think the Vikes are more in need of a "go up and get it" type of wr... We need an out for Ponder down the sidelines... We already have guys who can work underneath between Percy and our TE's. If a guy like Alshon Jeffry is around in the 2nd round I bet we take him.