Steelers G.M. Kevin Colbert went out of his way on Thursday to say that Mike Wallace should be with the team for a long, long time.
Ravens G.M. Ozzie Newsome went out of his way on Friday to say that the Ravens are very unlikely to go after Wallace if the Steelers “only” place a first round restricted free agent tag on him.
“The problem with going after restricted free agents, at that point, the player and the agent have the leverage because you have to do a deal that you don’t think the other team is going to match,” Newsome said. “Will some teams do it? I mean there are some teams that have two [first round picks] this year,” Newsome said. “Could they do it? Possibly. But they’ll be thinking about all of those other ramifications.”
Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a man too interested in going after Wallace. Newsome also noted that cheap rookie salaries makes the first round picks worth more. Finally, he didn’t seem to think Wallace was a particularly good fit on the team.
“Did you watch us play this year? Do you think we need a deep threat?”