Mike Wallace isn’t just sitting around, and apparently he’s about to make a move.
The Steelers wide receiver, who hasn’t reported while unhappy with the $2.7 million restricted free agent tender the team put on him, may be close to breaking the stalemate.
Conditioning coach Tom Shaw, who is working with Wallace in Orlando, told Alan Robinson of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Wallace wasn’t going to talk to reporters until he showed up at camp.
That, he said, “has got to be pretty soon. [The Steelers] aren’t just going to let him sit out there.”
So far, they have. And they signed fellow wideout Antonio Brown to a $42.5 million spite contract.
But Shaw said the money part of the equation wasn’t as much of an issue as some assume.
Shaw said Wallace’s silence was: “because he gets mad when people write things that are totally false. He doesn’t want a $100 million contract, a $50 million contract. He’s never told anybody that. He knows the Steelers aren’t talking, and he’s not talking.”
“He’s been holding out because he feels he’s given three good years to the Steelers, and you have only so much time to make money [in the NFL],” Shaw added.
The news that Wallace is “fast as lightning right now,” and staying in good condition is good news for the Steelers. But until he actually shows up and these two kiss and make up, it’s little consolation, or help for an offense that could use him.