With Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant reportedly facing a one-year suspension for once again violating the league’s substance abuse policy, it’s already being suggested that the team consider bringing back veteran wide receiver Mike Wallace, who was released by the Minnesota Vikings last week as a salary cap causality. In my opinion, the Steelers shouldn’t even think about doing such a thing.
For starters, even if Wallace were to be re-signed, it would have to be for right at, or near, the league minimum as he would be at best the team’s fourth wide receiver on the depth chart and quite possibly even the fifth behind both Sammie Coates and Darrius Heyward-Bey. On top of that, Wallace brings nothing to the table in the form of special team abilities so that would be another strike against him.
While Wallace still likely has enough speed to be considered a deep threat in the NFL, he is still the one-trick pony that he was when he left Pittsburgh to sign a very lucrative contract with the Miami Dolphins in 2013 as an unrestricted free agent. Drops have also continued to plague the Steelers former third-round draft pick since leaving Pittsburgh and in addition to that, he might not be the best player to have in the locker room.
As I wrote earlier today, while the Steelers certainly will miss Bryant’s skill set and big-play ability, they currently have enough talent at the wide receiver position to survive without him as the second-year Coates will surely be counted on to help fill the void along with Heyward-Bey, who was re-signed this past week.
In other words, Wallace isn’t needed in Pittsburgh and shouldn’t be considered an option at this point.
