Steelers lose Lewis, Mundy, and Colon
Friday came to an end, and it turned out to be a day of defections from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Three players signed contracts with new teams on Friday, Keenan Lewis, Ryan Mundy, and Willie Colon. Lets take a look at each of these signings, and discuss what it means for the Steelers.
Keenan Lewis
Starting cornerback Keenan Lewis was the one free agent that I was most hoping would decide to stay with the Steelers, but that didn’t happen. Lewis signed with his hometown team, the New Orleans Saints.
The disappointing part of Lewis’ departure is that the Steelers could have kept him if they wanted to. But they didn’t even make him an offer. He didn’t get an offer last year when he was a restricted free agent, and he didn’t get an offer this year as an unrestricted free agent. The Saints ended up stealing him for a price that will only count for $2.2 million against their 2013 salary cap. That’s very cheap for a starting NFL cornerback.
In my opinion, Lewis is more of a philosophical loss than any of the other players. The Steelers drafted Lewis, and he struggled for his first three years with the team. But it all finally came together for him last year, and he emerged as a starter. But now that he’s become a viable player for the Steelers, they let him leave for another team. NFL teams can’t afford to invest time and money into grooming young players only to see them leave once they’ve become a finished product. Now that Lewis is 26 years old, he is in his prime playing years, and the Steelers won’t get to reap the benefits of their investment into his development. Hopefully, this isn’t a pattern that we’ll be seeing very often with young players.
Ryan Mundy
Mundy has been a mediocre backup for the entire time he’s been with the Steelers. He never even came close to becoming a starter. Moreover, he never did anything that couldn’t have been done by any random undrafted free agent. So losing him is not a big loss for the Steelers.
Mundy signed with the New York Giants today, but other than his wife, I don’t think anyone really cares.
Willie Colon
Colon is also going to New York. Only he won’t be joining Ryan Mundy on the Giants. Instead, Colon signed with the New York Jets.
I had been suggesting that the Steelers should move Colon to guard for years, and then last year they finally did, and he was great in the position. The problem was that Colon just couldn’t stay healthy. He missed 36 games over the past 3 years. And made a fortune while missing all of those games. So he can afford to sign for the one year, $1.2 million contract the Jets gave him.
Others to watch
We’ll be watching anxiously to see which of the other former Steelers will be signing with new teams. Rumor has it that James Harrison has had some very fruitful conversations with the Baltimore Ravens, who have lost 3 linebackers since the Super Bowl. I would hate seeing Harrison wearing purple and black. I’d also hate to see the Steelers have to face him twice per year.
WTF are the steelers doing, losing Lewis was an EPIC FAIL!!!
1It seems like the Steelers had the cap space to sign Lewis so it appears they were not that impressed with him. His 2013 cap number for the Saints is reported as $2.2m so they must be confident with Cortez Allen and Gay as the nickel back. Also a little surprising they would not offer Colon something similar to what the Jets offered although that is more understandable because of his limited durability. If we lose Sanders then the team will have lost three of their core group of young promising players (Wallace, Lewis and Sanders) and will have to re-examine their long term approach to building a winning team.
2Losing Lewis is frustrating. The other guys I’m not concerned about.
An 8-8 team isn’t married to anyone, I’m told…I didn’t know that meant that “we’re not resigning any of those guys and completely rebuilding through the draft, getting some of our usual cheap veteran depth along the way.” I know that free agency really isn’t the Steelers’ way, but they haven’t retained some of their own guys either. I guess that’s the price to pay for attempting one last hurrah with your older veterans.
3Remember, Lewis took a discount to play for the Saints. It’s appears that is where he wanted to be. Maybe that’s why there was no offers.
@Admin – they didn’t really know what they had with him before this season. I hate to loose guys we develop though.
I’m glad Mundy is gone. I thought the pass defense improved when Allen replaced him as replacement for Polamalu.
The Steelers wouldn’t have cut him (now) if he only cost them 1.2M.
4That’s what happens when all your top players are due to get paid at the same time and those contracts keep gettin restructured every other year.You end up broke and making desperate moves.BUT I’d rather have Spaeth then Paulson..and aslong as Gay stays in the Nickle and Dime I’m good..Foote probably had one of his best years but this team is gona be stuck in Mediocrity in a few years if they don’t change their habits
5None of those guys will make me stay up at night! All replaceable
6