Do the Steelers need Mike Wallace?
Mike Wallace continues his holdout as the 2nd week of Steelers training camp gets underway. Many fans are upset with Wallace, and believe that he’s being selfish by holding out. Others think the Steelers are being cheap, and that they should just go ahead and pay Wallace.
But regardless of which side of that discussion you come out on, the basic question remains; do the Steelers even need Mike Wallace?
I’ve heard analyst say that now that the Steelers have given Antonio Brown a 5-year contract extension worth $42.5 million, they don’t have enough money left to pay Mike Wallace anywhere near what he’s seeking. Moreover, even if Mike Wallace were willing to accept a contract exactly like the one that Antonio Brown signed, the Steelers would probably be reluctant to invest $85 million into two wide receivers.
More importantly, if you look at what the Steelers have been doing in training camp, it doesn’t look like it’s tailored to fit Mike Wallace.
If we take a look at what Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley did while he was in Kansas City, it relied heavily on short passes, many of them going to the running backs. Dexter McCluster, Haley’s primary receiving threat out of the Chiefs’ backfield, caught 46 passes last year. Even fullback LeRon McClain caught 14 passes out of the backfield. By comparison, Rashard Mendenhall only caught 18 passes last year. And Isaac Redman also only caught 18 passes. So McCluster caught more passes out of the backfield than Mendenhall and Redman combined. More importantly, McCluster had 328 receiving yards. That’s more than Emmanuel Sanders had, and almost as many as Hines Ward compiled.
Offensive coordinator Todd Haley
And after the first week of training camp, that is also what the Steelers offense has looked like. Haley has emphasized the running game and short passes, and he has stated that he wants Ben Roethlisberger to get rid of the ball quicker. He has stated that he likes the potential that he sees in Baron Batch and Chris Rainey. He doesn’t sound like he’s at all concerned that Mike Wallace isn’t in camp.
One of the problems with the long catches that Mike Wallace was known for is that those plays take a long time to materialize. It takes a long time to get 4o yards down field, even if you’re as fast a Mike Wallace. But Haley wants to keep Big Ben’s shirt clean by having him get rid of the ball quickly.
If you look at how often the Chiefs threw the ball deep, it looks very different than the Steelers looked under Bruce Arains. The Chiefs only completed 39 passes that gained more than 20 yards. The Steelers, on the other hand, completed 60 passes of over 20 yards in Bruce Arians’ offense.
Arians liked to use Big Ben’s arm, and fast receivers to “take the top off the defense”. Haley prefers to gain favorable match-ups of fast running backs against comparably slower linebackers in open space. And Chris Rainey and Baron Batch seem to be perfect weapons for that philosphy. Mike Wallace, not so much.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Mike Wallace wouldn’t help the Steelers. Part of Antonio Brown’s success was undoubtedly due to the attention that Mike Wallace commanded from the defense. Also, short passes to Chris Rainey or Baron Batch will be much more effective if Wallace is drawing a cornerback and a safety deep down the field.
But Emmanuel Sanders is capable of catching long passes too. He’s not as fast as Wallace, but he’s fast enough. So is Toney Clemons (should he make the final roster). So even without Wallace, I doubt that the Steelers’ offense will grind to a screeching halt. In fact, I think it will be just fine.
I don’t think the Steelers need Mike Wallace. Just like they didn’t need Santonio Holmes…..or Plaxico Burress….or Yancey Thigpen. But I certainly think that they’re a better team with Mike Wallace than they are without him, and I want to see him wearing black and gold in 2012 and beyond.
The Steelers certainly don’t need MW, and they’ve publicly stated as much with the signing of AB. Brown, Sanders, and Cotchery by themselves are probably capable of outperforming many groups, and the Steelers can always rely on defense as well. That said, without Wallace the question marks around Sanders’ health, the running game, and so on get larger. The Steelers don’t need Wallace, but he certainly makes them better and his loss could be the difference between a playoff appearance and a Superbowl ring.
1An unrelated point to my first comment, don’t judge Haley just by KC. He ran a totally different offense in ARI that was wide open, down the field, with Fitzgerald, Boldin, and Warner.
Haley is capable of creating an offense that’s built on isolating mismatches, featuring TE’s and RB’s, and the Steelers have the personnel to do it. He could certainly also build an offense to attack defenses down the field.
2Everyone keeps asking do we really need Wallace, but what ever hasforgoten is that HE has a contract right now and he is not up holding his end by not coming to training camp. I am trired of athletes holding their teams hostage by holding out, u signed now play!!!!!
3Matthew,
Great point. Haley did run a pass oriented offense in Arizona. The difference was that he had Kurt Warner who was famous for getting rid of the ball quickly. So even though Arizona passed far more than his team did in KC, he still didn’t allow his QB to hold onto the ball and scramble the way Big Ben has gotten used to doing.
Frankly, I can’t think of any team that took as long for their plays to materialize as the combination of Roethlisberger and Arians used to take. Ben would sometimes scramble around for 4-8 seconds. That’s a formula for getting a QB killed. How often have you seen Brady, Brees, or manning holding onto the ball for more than 3 seconds?
4Anthony,
You’re right. Wallace is under contract, and he needs to get his butt into camp.
He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next year, and he’ll make his money then. But his $2.7 million tender isn’t a small amount of money either. Most people would LOVE to have that much money.
5Don’t think you can compare the number of pass over 20 yards between the 2 teams like you just did. The Chiefs quarterback is freaking Matt Cassell and the Steelers is Big Ben, of course the Steelers are going to throw more long passes, Cassel cant throw deep.
6I get what you’re saying but you must consider the diferences in styles before comparing the number
Pedro,
Valid point. But remember, Cassell showed that he was able to make all the throws when he was with New England. So some of his drop in passing yards has to be attributed to the system.
And it also helps to have Mike Wallace as a target. It’s a lot easier to take shots waaaaaaaay downfield when you have Mike Wallace to run under the passes.
7It’s painful to watch Matt Cassel. No way he can throw as accurately or as deep as Big Ben with any amount of consistency.
8Also, his career INT% is roughly 50% higher than Big Ben’s.. there’s a reason he doesn’t get to lob it deep.
9Per NFL Combine 40 yard times, Mike Wallace (4.33 sec.) is 0.08 sec. faster than Emanuel Sanders (4.41 sec.). The human eye requires 100 to 400 milliseconds to blink. The Wallace/Sanders time differential converts from 0.08 sec. to 80 milliseconds or faster than a really fast eye blink. Sanders is more than fast enough. Too much is made of Wallace’s so-called speed.
10Wally is an exceptional player with unmatchable speed. His production and his attraction of double coverage will be missed but a potent offense can still be constructed with all of the other pieces that remain, particularly if Ben remains healthy. An increased roll for Sanders (from whom we will need a full season) and Heath as a receiver is critical.
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