Absent a long-term deal, Steelers will regret matching Sanders offer

In the end, the 50 that wanted to keep receiver Emmanuel Sanders outweighed the 50 that didn’t.
The 50 that lost likely will be saying “I told you so” in less than a year.
With a one-year, $2.5 million deal, Sanders is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in March 2014.  And with the Steelers unlikely to use the franchise tag (after all, they didn’t use it to keep Mike Wallace around), Sanders will head to market barring a long-term deal.
If Sanders makes it to the open market, the Patriots likely will be given the first crack at signing him, thanks to the fact that the Pats helped him get a $1.2 million raise for 2013.  The Steelers, in turn, will have nothing if Sanders leaves.
Sure, his departure will factor in to the complex formula for determining compensatory draft picks in 2015.  But the Steelers could have had the 91st overall pick in the draft now, signing the player to a four-year deal that would have cost roughly the same as one more year with Sanders.
The benefit for the Steelers is that the matching of the offer puts Sanders under contract for 2013, which means he won’t be able to avoid mandatory minicamp or training camp without incurring potential fines.  Last year, Wallace didn’t sign his tender and thus wasn’t under contract, which translated to a holdout that lasted deep into August.
In theory, the Steelers now have the exclusive ability through next March to try to sign him to a long-term deal.  And that’s the real question we have moving forward.  In deciding to match the offer, did the Steelers also decide to take all reasonable steps to keep Sanders over the long haul?  If so — and if they get him signed — then the decision to match won’t be as bad as if the Steelers view it as a one-more-year move.
The Patriots will now be left to wonder whether they should have put some more money into the offer, and precisely how much more would have scared the Steelers away.  More importantly, the Pats now need to look elsewhere for help at receiver.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo: Patriots.com

Patriots sign Emmanuel Sanders to offer sheet

The Patriots are making a move for wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders.
Sanders, a restricted free agent from the Steelers, has signed an offer sheet with the Patriots, according to multiple reports.
That means the Steelers will have five days to either match the Patriots’ offer and keep Sanders, or decline to match it and let Sanders become a Patriot. If the Steelers don’t match, they get the Patriots’ third-round draft pick, No. 91 overall.
The offer is reportedly a one-year contract. The Patriots have more cap space than the Steelers this season, so it wouldn’t be hard for New England to offer Sanders a higher salary in 2013 than the Steelers can afford to pay. But if the Patriots send the Steelers their third-round draft pick they’ll be almost out of ammunition in the draft: They’ve already traded away their fourth-round pick for Aqib Talib, their fifth-round pick for Albert Haynesworth and their sixth-round pick for Chad Ochocinco.
Sanders visited the Patriots a month ago, and the possibility that he could land in New England has been much-discussed since then. If the Steelers don’t match, then the Patriots have taken a big step toward filling the gaps in their receiving corps, and the Steelers — who have already lost Mike Wallace in free agency — will be down two of their top three wide receivers.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Michael David Smith
Photo: Patriots.com