Villanueva happy camper
Steelers mammoth LT glad new contract is fair, and resolved
Alejandro Villanueva is glad it’s over, this whole contract thing. Thursday, the offensive left tackle signed his new deal, worth $24 million over four years. While the money is good, Villanueva, 28, didn’t enjoy all that came with it.
“It’s not a fun process,” Villanueva said Friday after the Steelers’ first morning walk-through of training camp. “Going through a contract is — for some reason, you feel really embarrassed afterwards and all the media attention you get out of it is not fun.”
Presumably, Villanueva is referring to the public spectacle contract negotiations become, with outsiders sometimes wondering how many millions a player really needs. It’s what makes Villanueva’s case so interesting. His contract is below the average salary for starting left tackles.
Villanueva’s career arc also put him in a unique position in negotiations. This former Army Ranger didn’t sign with an NFL team until 2014. He will turn 29 in September, and this might have been his one shot at a large contract. The long-term deal allowed him to avoid playing the upcoming season on the one-year, $615,000 exclusive rights free-agent tender the Steelers offered in the offseason.
“In my football career, I’ve been more focused on trying to make the team. I’ve been more focused on becoming a starter. I’ve been more focused on trying to not embarrass myself on national television,” Villanueva said. “My agent kind of focused on the question of what is fair. So, it was a very tough assignment for him.”
Villanueva, who has started the past 31 games at left tackle after joining the team’s practice squad in 2014, said he wasn’t seriously considering holding out. He said he was only seeking a “fair” contract, and he used the word 10 times in his 13-minute media session.
In the offseason, Villanueva made the decision to attend organized team activities (OTAs) and work out at the team facility while negotiations were ongoing. As the process continued, he admitted he didn’t know whether a deal was going to get done — “It was sort of a last-minute thing,” he said — but he planned to attend camp.
Part of the reason, he said, was because there are still a “few things here and there” he can learn about the position. After all, when he was cut by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2014, he had been playing defensive line. Mostly, though, he said being at camp is important in establishing a routine and continuing to build sound communication among the offensive line unit.
“I would say I was not set to hold out, but I was not set to wait at my house, either,” he said. “I’m hoping to play football.”
Villanueva was asked whether he compared his new deal to what other starting left tackles make, and, in an impassioned response, he explained why he did not.
“I played in a park in Belgium. That’s where I played football in high school for a year. I really didn’t have a lot of experience. I was a walkon at West Point. I was last string D-end when I was at Army. Then I played wide receiver and offensive line. Not really had a career that you could say was groomed to be a first-round pick and get a big contract,” he said.
“Then I went to the Army and obviously that was my first and foremost priority in life. I was deployed three times. I’ve got so many things, so many other situations in my life where it could’ve been the opposite. It could have been like, ‘Man, would you rather be walking on both your legs?’ or, ‘Would you rather still have all your limbs and what not?’ These scenarios of whether you’re getting $24 million or someone else is getting $46 [million], to me, that’s irrelevant.
“I just want the fairness thing out of it. I understand people are going to have opinions about the contract. I can’t really convince everybody. I can’t even make those decisions myself. It’s got to be my agent, so I’m very happy to be here with the Steelers and I’m really looking forward to the start of the season.”