McFadden latest in long line of retro Steelers
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After Rod Woodson was cut by the San Francisco 49ers after the 1997 season, former director of football operations Tom Donahoe was asked if the Steelers would be interested in bringing back their former cornerback.
"We're not the Salvation Army," Donahoe said at the time. "It's not an open door and 'everybody come on back in.' "
How times have changed.
For the fourth time in the past two months, the Steelers brought back one of their former players Saturday when they traded the second of their four fifth-round picks to the Arizona Cardinals to re-acquire cornerback Bryant McFadden, a No. 2 draft choice in 2005 who was a starter on the Super Bowl XLIII team.
"We felt that was a huge pickup -- a No. 2 pick for a fifth-round pick," secondary coach Ray Horton said. "Value-wise, you pick up an instant starting cornerback in the league for a fifth-round pick."
McFadden is the third player from that 2008 Super Bowl team to rejoin the Steelers after a one-year hiatus, along with inside linebacker Larry Foote and quarterback Byron Leftwich. Wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, who played on the 2005 Super Bowl team in which McFadden was a rookie, was also re-signed in free agency in March.
Who's next? Alan Faneca, the six-time Pro Bowl guard who was released Saturday by the New York Jets?
"I think it's really important getting guys like Larry and Bryant back," director of football operations Kevin Colbert said. "The guys [on the team] know who they're getting back, and they'll accept them."
After failing to take a cornerback in the first four rounds to help their leaky pass defense, the Steelers traded the 155th overall pick -- the selection obtained from the New York Jets in the Santonio Holmes trade -- to get an instant starter in McFadden, 28. The two sides then agreed in principle on a new three-year contract.
His return was necessitated when his replacement, William Gay, played poorly in 2009 and was eventually benched and replaced by veteran Deshea Townsend late in the season.
"We got a guy who knows what it means to be a Pittsburgh Steeler and understands the culture here," coach Mike Tomlin said.
First Published April 25, 2010 12:06 am
