Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace is now in house and has signed his one-year, $2.74 million restricted tender. With that course of action now over, negotiations can now reopen and the two sides can continue to try to get a long term-deal hammered out prior to the season opener a week from this coming Sunday in Denver.
As I have pointed out several times this offseason, there is plenty of cap space for the Steelers to get a deal done with Wallace. That deal, if reached, figures to be of the 5-year variety and possibly total out between $45-55 million. The biggest sticking point will be the guaranteed money in the deal, which will likely be divided up between a signing bonus and a second year option bonus.
A realistic signing bonus could likely fall in the area of $15-18 million on a five-year deal with another $5-7 million as second year option bonus. Wallace also would likely receive a 2012 base salary of around $1-2 million.
The Steelers do not like to talk contracts once the season starts and we could see an instance like we did last year when Troy Polamalu signed his new contract extension in the Pittsburgh airport prior to the team leaving for their week 1 game against the Baltimore Ravens.
