Heartfelt decisions await Steelers
-
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert has his hands full this offseason.
Share with others:
The NFL season may be over but the season for making news just won't let up for the Steelers.
General manager Kevin Colbert said he is not counting on halfback Rashard Mendenhall being able to play in 2012 because of his ACL surgery, and it appears they will not sign any of their own pending free agents before they hit the open market March 13.
Those revelations were among a handful Colbert delivered Monday afternoon at the team's facility on the South Side.
Among others:
• Colbert confirmed that no decision has been made on whether Hines Ward will be back with the Steelers in 2012.
"To this current point, no final decisions have been made," Colbert said of Ward and all the veteran players. "We've had several discussions internally. We're right in the midst of our free agent evaluations of other teams' free agents. We'll meet on those [on the Steelers roster] starting Thursday and carry through Monday."
• The Steelers "have work to do" to get under the mandatory NFL salary cap by March 13, which is the beginning of the new league calendar and the start of free agency.
"I think with the combination of terminations and restructurings that we'll be able to handle this," Colbert said, "along with doing new business with our own free agents and possibly some from outside" after March 13.
• They want to keep receiver Mike Wallace "here for the long run." Wallace, their leading receiver last season, will become a restricted free agent March 13.
• Some big names could be released before training camp starts, although Colbert would not speculate on who they may be.
"There are terminations in any season," Colbert said. "Term it as you like, we'll make the necessary adjustments to be in compliance with the cap and put the best team that we can on the field for 2012.
"They're all tough, really," he said regarding potential cuts. "When you've had success as we've been fortunate enough to have over the recent years, anybody who's part of your team and you have to release them, that's always tough."
• Colbert said they saw this problem with the salary cap coming since the uncapped season of 2010.
"We've seen this coming for a while and we knew we would have to make some serious adjustments after this past season, because the previous season we didn't have a salary cap and really we took some liberties that year that we would not have been able to in a capped year. Some of that carried over into this year."
Colbert did not say that Mendenhall would not play in 2012, but "it possibly could" wipe out his season. Mendenhall had surgery on his knee in January after his injury Jan. 1 in Cleveland.
First Published February 14, 2012 12:00 am
