The Facts:
Following up on a
previous item. ... Less than 24 hours after a league source told me that a handful of teams are interested in trading for Wallace leading up the NFL draft scheduled for two weeks from today, news leaked that Wallace doesn't intend on showing up to any of the Steelers' offseason activities in protest of his first-round tender.
Reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Fantasy Football Diehards Line:
According to Tribune-Review staffer Mark Kaboly, it isn't by coincidence that the news was leaked that Wallace doesn't plan to sign his restricted free agent tender by the April 20 deadline only weeks before the draft, it is strategy. As Kaboly explained, if the Steelers want to keep Wallace, there's nothing he can do to prevent that. However, he can try to force the Steelers' hand to either pay him or trade him. And that's exactly what he and his representatives are doing. And even though agent Bus Cook's plan of planting information that his client would be a major player in the restricted free agent market this year because of the new CBA rule that requires only a first-round pick as compensation rather than a first and a third backfired, Kaboly believes that doesn't mean this tactic won't. It is very attractive to teams to try to get Wallace via a trade because it would definitely command less than a first-round pick it would've cost them on the RFA market. Whatever the case, Kaboly advised readers it's becoming clearer that the Steelers aren't going to offer Wallace enough money for him to forgo testing the free agent mark next year. The Steelers aren't going to franchise him, either. So a trade could make sense if the right offer comes along. Stay tuned.
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