Remember the skinny, average looking girl that hung around with a few fat, ugly friends? By hanging out with really ugly friends, she made herself look more attractive.Well, OT Max Starks is the Steelers version of the same concept.
The Steelers applied the franchise tag to Starks today. Starks will be paid the average of the top 5 offensive tackles in the NFL for the 2009 season. Starks alone will count 8.45 million dollars against the 2009 salary cap! Wow!
Starks was the best lineman on a weak offensive line in 2008. The Steelers won the Super Bowl in spite of their offensive line, not because of it. Also, this signing all but assures the Steelers will not have enough cap space to sign Bryant McFadden to a long term deal.
I'm completely puzzled by this move. Starks is certainly not a top 5 OT in the NFL and shouldn't be paid as one.
Rumor had it that Starks was looking for a long term contract in the neighborhood of 5 years and 30 million dollars. So why in the world would the Steelers lock him up at a ridiculous figure for 1 season? Not to mention, Starks received the transition tag last season that paid him nearly 7 million dollars to start the season as a backup.
With only a little over 20 million in available cap space for 2009, I believe they just wasted almost half of the allotted amount. The Steelers still have draft picks and free agents to sign.
I usually back Kevin Colbert's decisions...but I'm not on board with this one.
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