Addressing reporters Tuesday morning at the AFC coaches’ breakfast at the annual NFL owners’ meeting, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said he expects an experienced running back will be signed soon, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
As of right now, the only two visible candidates are free agents Maurice Jones-Drew and LeGarrette Blount. The former visited last week, while the latter is expected to be in Pittsburgh later this week.
On Monday, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News wrote that the Steelers are one of four teams interested in Jones-Drew and that talks with his camp were expected to continue this week in Orlando, FL. In addition, Mehta said earlier reports that Jones-Drew was looking for $3.5 million a season aren’t necessarily true, as that number is high, according to his sources.
Unless the Steelers have another running back lined up to come in that we haven’t heard about, one would think that Blount’s asking price would still be much lower than that of Jones-Drew’s. The Steelers don’t have a lot of salary cap space to work with unless a contract restructure or extension is all lined up ready to go, so they would essentially have to pay in rolled coins if neither of those two events take place.
