The safety market fizzled this offseason, and Mike Mitchell believes he knows why.
Mitchell, who signed with the Colts this week, intimated teams lowballed all safeties to avoid the appearance of collusion against Eric Reid.
“You know what happened,” Mitchell told Stephen Holder of The Athletic. “I don’t need to say it. I know what you know.”
Reid filed a collusion grievance against the NFL seven weeks after becoming a free agent. He finally signed a free agent deal Sept. 27 but got only a one-year, $1.39 million deal from the Panthers.
Mitchell made $20 million from the Steelers over the past four seasons. He will get the prorated portion of the veteran minimum $915,000 the rest of this season.
“If you’re working a regular job and you’re making $100,000 and then, the very next year, they want you to do the exact same work for $20,000, you’d be a little perplexed about that situation,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think it’s any different here.”