The Pittsburgh Steelers put tenders on four of their six restricted free agents. Those four players should receive plenty of playing time in 2013 and the other two non-tendered players could be back for the 2013 season depending on how things play out in free agency and the draft.
All four tenders that the Steelers placed on players are the lowest possible tenders and will give those players a salary of $1.3 million for the 2013 season. Each player can also negotiate with other teams or the Steelers themselves to work out a long-term contract. If the player signs with another team, however, that team will have to give up a compensation pick to the Steelers in the same round that the corresponding player was drafted.
However, Steve McLendon and Isaac Redman, two of the four players tendered contracts today, were undrafted rookie free agents. Therefore, if another team signs them and the Steelers refuse to match the deal they will lose the player and not receive compensation. The Steelers could have placed a second round tender on any of the six players that would guarantee that player a $2 million contract in 2013 and would require another team to give up a second round pick to sign the player away from the Steelers.
The first tender was placed on nose tackle Steve McLendon, who is expected to replace Casey Hampton as the starter in 2013. Hampton is an unrestricted free agent and due to age and the Steelers cap problems he is not expected to return next season. There was some talk of McLendon receiving a second round tender so that the Steelers would have a better chance of retaining him this off-season.
It would be hard to argue that nose tackle is not the hardest position to fill in the 3-4 defense and with many teams switching to the 3-4 McLendon may get an offer on the open market. If that offer is substantial the Steelers may not be able to match it and due to the low tender they would receive no compensation from the signing team.
Redman also could leave the Steelers if they refuse to match a contract offer he receives on the open market and they would receive no compensation in losing him since he was also an undrafted rookie free agent signing. There was some talk that the Steelers would only tender a contract to one of Redman or Dwyer due to their cap space, but by tendering a contract to both it shows at least some faith in their running back group.
Dwyer, like the other three, can also negotiate for a deal on the open market and again the Steelers would have a chance to match the contract offer. However, unlike Redman and McLendon the Steelers would receive compensation if they lose Dwyer. Dwyer was drafted in the sixth round so another team would have to surrender their sixth round draft pick to sign him away from the Steelers. It doesn’t sound like much, but at least the Steelers would receive some form of compensation for losing him.
The last player tendered a contract was wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders was drafted in the third round so a team would have to give up a third round pick to sign him away. That is unlikely to happen due to Sanders injury past and production level. Picks in the first three rounds are usually coveted more so than later round picks and its hard to imagine a team giving up their third round selection for Sanders.
The two players that were not tendered deals were linebacker Stevenson Sylvester and punter Jeremy Kapinos. Sylvester was supposed to battle for the starting inside linebacker job with Larry Foote in training camp last off-season, but an injury cost him most of his season and he only played on one defensive snap. Sylvester could be back with the Steelers on a minimum contract and the Steelers probably knew he wouldn’t receive much interest on the open market and believed they could bring him back for much less than the $1.3 million tender.
Kapinos, on the other hand, was supposed to fight for the punting job in 2012, but a back injury cost him the season and rookie Drew Butler took over. Butler didn’t have a great year for the Steelers though, and it’s possible the team could bring back Kapinos to compete in camp or sign another punter to at least fight for the job with Butler during the 2013 training camp.
Recap of the Steelers Tendered Free Agents:
- RB Jonathan Dwyer: Original round (compensation: sixth round pick)
- P Jeremy Kapinos: No tender
- NT Steve McLendon: Right of first refusal (no compensation)
- RB Isaac Redman: Right of first refusal (no compensation)
- LB Stevenson Sylvester: No tender
- WR Emmanuel Sanders: Original round (compensation: third round pick)
