Markets stagnant for skill positions
Teams reluctant to give multi-year deals to receivers, backs
What do Corey Davis, Curtis Samuel, Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Jamal Agnew and Marvin Jones have in common?
They are all wide receivers who signed multi-year contracts in free agency to move to another team.
What do Kenny Golladay, T.Y. Hilton, Larry Fitzgerald, Antonio Brown, Cordarrelle Patterson and Sammy Watkins have in common?
They are all free-agent wide receivers who have yet to sign a contract to move to another team.
Aside from Davis, who signed the biggest contract given to a wide receiver in free agency (three years, $37.5 million) to move from Tennessee to the New York Jets, the best crop of wide receivers are the ones who are still waiting to make a move. And they might be waiting for a while. The Steelers are glad JuJu Smith-Schuster isn’t one of them.
There has been something of a run on wide receivers the past couple of days, but the vast majority of those are one-year contracts. Those include A.J. Green (Arizona), Will Fuller (Miami), Emmanuel Sanders (Buffalo) and Keelan Cole (Jets). They all received deals ranging from $5.5 million for Cole to $10,625,011 for Fuller.
Of the six receivers who received multi-year contracts that total at least $12.5 million, only four were three-year deals.
Because of the flattened salary cap, most teams have been reluctant to hand out big multi-year contracts and have stayed away from signing the big-name receivers. Conversely, the top available receivers are likely reluctant to accept anything less than a multi-year deal that has guaranteed money. To date Davis, who was given $27 million guaranteed according to Spotrac. is the exception.
The slow market and lack of multi-year contracts might be what made it possible for Smith-Schuster to return to the Steelers on a reported one-year, $8 million deal.
Since Davis signed with the Jets, the market for big-money receivers has been slow. And it will be interesting to see when, and if, that changes.
Running slowly
Only six running backs have changed teams in free agency, none for anything more than a twoyear deal. Like wide receivers, all the top running backs on the freeagent market — Todd Gurley, Leonard Fournette, Duke Johnson, Le’Veon Bell — are still waiting. That includes James Conner.
Demand for running backs is not very high. The biggest deal thus far has been the two-year, $11 million contract Kenyan Drake signed to go from Arizona to the Las Vegas Raiders.
According to Spotrac, Conner’s projected market value as a threeyear starter is a two-year deal worth $10.8 million — a high number for a running back whose only good season came in 2018. And one who had surgery on his big toe after the season. Conner has been rehabilitating his injury at the Steelers South Side facility.
And another thing ...
• While it might seem like good news that the free-agent defections of four starters (including nickelback Mike Hilton) will result in more compensatory picks for the Steelers in the 2022 draft, keep in mind a lot of other teams who are faced with similar cap casualties will be in the same boat. With so many comp picks to be disbursed by the league, it could be the longest draft since the league went to seven rounds in 1994.
• It is no surprise the Steelers did not re-sign Hilton. For starters, the Steelers had never given him anything more than a one-year contract since they originally signed him in 2017. And, after what was his best season in 2020, he was in position to get a multi-year deal from somebody, which turned out to be the Cincinnati Bengals. Despite his size, Hilton was a terror along the line of scrimmage, a tough, determined tackler who
made many plays in the backfield. But he also struggled in coverage. He might end up like a lot of other Steelers who defect to other teams — they do not flourish in a different system. Hilton was a good slot corner in the team’s fire- zone schemes. The Bengals would be wise to use him as designed, not as they desire.
• The loss of nose tackle Tyson Alualu apparently had nothing to do with the Steelers’ desire to keep him. Alualu, 34, signed a two-year deal to return to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team that drafted him in the first round in 2010, because his family still lives there. He accepted a deal that will pay him just slightly more than the $2.5 million he earned last season with the Steelers. Nonetheless, it further depletes the Steelers depth on the defensive line, which was about as thin as a credit card already. It’s probably why they felt compelled to bring back defensive end Chris Wormley on a one-year deal.