The Steelers checked one contract off their to-do list and signed offensive tackle Max Starks to a four-year, $26.3 million contract yesterday with a signing bonus of about $10 million.
Starks, a six-year veteran, now is signed through 2012. It has long been a goal of the Steelers to sign Starks to a long-term contract.
He was the Steelers' second-highest paid player last season, even though he began the year as a reserve. But, for the past two years, the Steelers have prevented him from becoming an unrestricted free agent. He earned $6.9 million last season as the team's transition player and was labeled the franchise player in February, setting him up to earn $8,451,000 this season, the average salary of the NFL's top five offensive linemen. With the announcement of his new contract, Starks no longer carries the team's franchise tag and the team created about $2 million in salary-cap room for this year. Continue
This guy is going to have to get a lot better a lot sooner to warrant the kind of money he's getting. Don't understand why the Steelers didn't draft an OT this year. Oh well.
www.draftsharks.com
Posted by: Draft Sharks | July 10, 2009 at 02:16 PM