I am already getting a few questions as to who the Pittsburgh Steelers 2013 free agents will be after the 2012 season, so I thought I would give you a quick peek at the players that are currently under contract and tendered as of right now.
Of course the list of unrestricted players is likely to grow, because a few players the Steelers could likely sign back such as Byron Leftwich, Charlie Batch and William Gay, to name a few, will likely only be signed to one-year qualifying contracts.
Looking at the unrestricted list, the two names of course that jump out are Mike Wallace and Rashard Mendenhall. As of right now Wallace is of course wearing a one-year restricted tender and the hopes are he will be signed to a long term deal before the start of the regular season. This assumes he makes through the rest of this free agency period without receiving an offer sheet, which looks more and more likely by the day that he will. Should Wallace not get signed to a long term deal, he would be the lone candidate to wear the 2013 franchise tag, should the Steelers intend to use it. Mendenhall will in no way be in consideration for the tag just one year removed from his ACL injury. I fully expect they will allow him to test the free agency waters. The rest of the unrestricted free agents will also likely be allowed to test free agency as well.
The restricted free agent list of course includes Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders and Isaac Redman as notables. While it is hard to predict this far out, the obvious guess would be that Brown would be tendered at a first round level, while Sanders would be given an original round tender. Redman, who was signed as an undrafted free agent, could be tendered at a second round level if he has a good 2012 season. I don\’t see him getting tendered any higher than that. The rest of the list of unrestricted free agents would likely only garner an original round tender like that of Sanders. Should Sanders have a break out type year, and he certainly is capable of it, he of course could be tendered at a first or second round level if need be.
2013 Unrestricted Free Agents
S Will Allen
LB Larry Foote
G Ramon Foster
NT Casey Hampton
TE David Johnson
G Doug Legursky
CB Keenan Lewis
T Jonathan Scott
RB Rashard Mendenhall
S Ryan Mundy
WR Mike Wallace
LS Greg Warren
2013 Restricted Free Agents
WR Antonio Brown 6th
RB Jonathan Dwyer 6th
P Jeremy Kapinos UD
NT Steve McLendon UD
RB Isaac Redman UD
WR Emmanuel Sanders 3rd
LB Stevenson Sylvester 5th
