Adam Schefter of ESPN reports Monday via Twitter that according to a league source, the Pittsburgh Steelers made a play for free agent tackle Jake Long, who wound up agreeing to a deal with the St. Louis Rams Sunday night.
Long, the first overall pick of the 2008 draft by the Miami Dolphins, signed a four-year, $34 million deal with the Rams.
So what does this interest in Long mean to the rest of the Steelers tackles on the roster, if indeed the report is true? It means that the Steelers are always looking to better their roster, but I am not so sure the Steelers could have afforded Long. Perhaps they just wanted to know what the sticker price was for a starting left tackle.
With Max Starks unlikely to be brought back in 2013, the Steelers are planning to turn to Mike Adams and Marcus Gilbert to be their tackles. That doesn\’t change until a player is signed or drafted that we think can compete for one of those spots.
This time of year it is not uncommon to hear the word, “interested”, thrown out there quite a bit. If the player never signs or never visits with the team that they are being linked to, it is hard to measure the true level of interest that may or may not have existed.
