On Tuesday Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor said for the second time in less than a week that he thinks restricted free agent wide receiver Mike Wallace will be in training camp at some point with a new contract.
“Mike\’s going to be there,” said Taylor on Trib Live Radio. “I\’m sticking my neck out, but heck, I\’m going to go on and say it, Mike Wallace is going to be there for training camp.”
Taylor, who appears every Tuesday on The Ike Taylor Show hosted by John Harris, also added, “I think Mike is finally seeing the business side of this football and I know for sure they\’re going to work something out. Do I think hes going to be there before training camp? I don\’t know. Do I think hes going to get the deal done during training camp? Yeah.”
Taylor said that he saw Wallace last Thursday when he was back home in New Orleans hosting his annual football camp and said that Wallace has been working out on his own to stay in shape.
The comments made Tuesday by Taylor match what he told the New Orleans media last weekend during his camp. “He\’s going to be there (training camp),” Taylor told Albert Buford of The Times-Picayune on Saturday. “They\’ll get it done. When you talk about that kind of money, it\’s not an overnight type of deal. By the end of the day, I think for sure he\’s going to get that thing done. Both sides are working together, so that\’s a good thing.”
Last weekend was not the first time that Taylor had talked to Wallace this off-season as the two talked quite a bit when they were together in Las Vegas during the Memorial Day weekend. Taylor said on his radio show following that weekend that he told Wallace, “Football doesn\’t need you, you need football.”
Does Taylor have some sort of info that the two sides are in the same ballpark as far as negotiations go? Likely not, but the Steelers veteran has sounded pretty confident over the last several weeks that Wallace will be in camp at some point. He just doesn\’t know exactly when that will be. Wishful thinking? Perhaps, but Taylor seems to be trying to talk to Wallace about his situation every chance he gets.
We still have just under a month to go before we find out the answer to the Wallace question as the Steelers are scheduled to report to training camp on July 25th.
