Uncapped year impacts status of Steelers' Colon
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Willie Colon, left, has been the Steelers' starting right tackle for three seasons.
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Willie Colon has not complained, his agent has not complained, and the Steelers have said nothing to him or his agent about it, but they have their starting right tackle over a unique barrel.
Under usual circumstances, Colon would become an unrestricted free agent March 5, four years after he signed his first contract as a fourth-round draft choice. As a three-year starter at right tackle, about to turn 27 years old and acclaimed by his own coaches to be among the best tackles in the NFL, Colon could hit the jackpot.
The average compensation of the top five offensive linemen in the NFL one year ago was $8,451,000; the average of the top 10 was $7,744,000.
Fourth-round draft choices do not make much money on their first contract, relatively speaking, of course. Colon averaged $454,500 annually for those three years. He then became a restricted free agent last year, and the Steelers tendered him a contract of about $2.2 million to keep him. That was a nice jump in pay for Colon, but nothing like what he could experience this year as an unrestricted free agent.
Instead, he will remain a restricted free agent because the rules will change as, almost everyone in the business expects, the NFL heads into the unfamiliar waters of an uncapped year in 2010. The rule that impacts Colon and more than 200 other players changes the number years of service to become unrestricted from four to six.
Colon, then, would become a restricted free agent again March 5. If no contract is negotiated this year and the Steelers tender him a deal under the restricted free agent rules, he again would be restricted in 2011 if no collective bargaining agreement is negotiated a year from now.
Some refer to these players as "notch babies." Tight end Heath Miller also would have been in that spot, but he signed a long-term contract last summer.
Colon would make around $2.5 million this year if the Steelers tender him a contract. While that is good money, it cannot compare to what, for example, left tackle Max Starks received from the Steelers. They signed Starks to a four-year, $26.3 million contract in June. That averages to about $6.6 million per year.
First Published January 28, 2010 12:00 am
