Alejandro Villanueva has teammate on his side in contract battle with Steelers

[RuthlessBurgher]

The Steelers could keep him for another couple of years for only a million or so dollars. Then two seasons from now, he could likely get an eight-figure contract on the open market. If you give him and his family some guaranteed security via a decent signing bonus today, he might accept a deal now that splits the difference between the $1-2 million he would be getting for 2017 and 2018 and the $10-12 million he might be able to get in 2019 and beyond.

Use the deal we gave Marcus Gilbert a few years ago as a basic framework (a 5 year extension worth $30,815,000 in new money with a $7,650,000 signing bonus). That Gilbert deal gave him a cap hit of $2.39M in 2014, $3.25M in 2015, $4.07M in 2016, $7.31M in 2017, $7.36M in 2018, and $6.64M in 2019. I could live with a similar payout schedule for Villenueva over the next several seasons.

[phillyesq]

The Steelers could keep him for another couple of years for only a million or so dollars. Then two seasons from now, he could likely get an eight-figure contract on the open market. If you give him and his family some guaranteed security via a decent signing bonus today, he might accept a deal now that splits the difference between the $1-2 million he would be getting for 2017 and 2018 and the $10-12 million he might be able to get in 2019 and beyond.


Use the deal we gave Marcus Gilbert a few years ago as a basic framework (a 5 year extension worth $30,815,000 in new money with a $7,650,000 signing bonus). That Gilbert deal gave him a cap hit of $2.39M in 2014, $3.25M in 2015, $4.07M in 2016, $7.31M in 2017, $7.36M in 2018, and $6.64M in 2019. I could live with a similar payout schedule for Villenueva over the next several seasons.

Yup, a deal like that serves both sides very well.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Labriola on Big Al learning from Fast Willie
Posted 4 hours ago


Bob Labriola
Steelers.com

Alejandro Villanueva's situation today is similar to Willie Parker's in 2006.

Ready or not, here it comes:

* He was the undisputed “Camp Phenom, 2004 Edition,” and in retrospect he deserves to be first-team All-Time Camp Phenom. In about eight weeks from now, the Steelers will be living and working in Latrobe, Pa., where they’ll be starting their 51st complete training camp on the Saint Vincent College campus, and during their half-century of summering in the beautiful Laurel Highlands there have been few out-of-nowhere stories better than the one authored 13 years ago by Willie Parker.

* The Summer of 2004 also marked the professional debut of Ben Roethlisberger, the first-round pick who came to be recognized as the Steelers’ quarterback of the future before he even picked up a football simply by being selected 11th overall in the first round. The presence of a rookie quarterback, and the presence of a rookie quarterback drafted on the first round naturally attracted the bulk of the attention, but as the summer wore on fans and media started noticing the guy wearing No. 39.

* The first thing you noticed was the speed. Even in non-contact drills, the guy wearing No. 39 displayed a burst that caught your attention and then immediately directed you to the numerical roster you carry with you everywhere you go during those early days of every training camp. Who is that No. 39? Willie Parker. Where did he play college football? North Carolina.

* That’s how it started, but it didn’t end with the speed. Tough running between the tackles, instead of always trying to bounce outside and get around the corner. Stepping up to pick up a blitzer in pass protection. And you just kept coming back to the speed.

* Then you learned that Willie Parker’s career totals at North Carolina: 285 carries for 1,172 yards (4.1 average) and eight touchdowns. Career totals, and the team was 2-10 during his senior season? He only got 48 carries for 181 yards for a 2-10 team, and he’s looking like a guy who’s going to make an NFL roster at a position that contained veterans named Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley. It made no sense.

* But anyway, it soon became a reality that Willie Parker, a nobody from nowhere when training camp opened, was going to make the Steelers’ roster to start the 2004 season. He was inactive for most of the first half of that season, but then in a meaningless regular season finale, Parker rushed for 102 yards on 19 carries in a victory over Buffalo that sent the Steelers into the 2004 playoffs with a 15-1 record.

* By the time training camp ended the following summer, in 2005, Parker was a starter, partly because Staley was injured and Bettis was 33 years old, but also partly because 4.3 speed can neither be taught nor denied. Parker finished the 2005 regular season with 1,202 yards on 255 carries (4.7 average) and four touchdowns, and then he capped the postseason with a Super Bowl record 75-yard touchdown run to help bring a fifth Lombardi Trophy to Pittsburgh.

* As an undrafted rookie in 2004, Parker had signed a two-year contract to join the Steelers and come to training camp and try his luck at an NFL career, but as the confetti rained down on the Steelers inside Ford Field following Super Bowl XL, there was no doubt he belonged. And with Bettis having retired, there also was no doubt he was the Steelers’ best running back.

* According to the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Parker was nothing more than an exclusive rights free agent as the 2006 offseason began, and that status meant he had no ability to shop his services to another team nor did the Steelers have to offer him anything more than the third-year veteran minimum salary for the upcoming season. Another reality of Parker’s situation was that after 2006, he only would be a restricted free agent entering the 2007 offseason.

* Even though the Steelers had the upper hand with Parker, on Aug. 31, 2006, the team signed him to a four-year, $13.6 million contract that included a $3.75 million signing bonus. Parker ended up earning every nickel of that $13.6 million before leaving the Steelers following the 2009 season and signing with the Washington Redskins as an unrestricted free agent.

* This situation should be educational for Alejandro Villanueva and his agent, because theirs is a situation remarkably similar to the one in which Parker found himself after the 2005 season.

* Like Parker in early 2006, Villanueva is an exclusive rights free agent in 2017 and would qualify only for restricted free agency in 2018.

* Like Parker, Villanueva entered the NFL as a long-shot, a guy without a real position who played his college football at West Point. Parker first impressed Steelers scout Dan Rooney Jr. with his speed, while Villanueva impressed Mike Tomlin with how he stood head and shoulders taller than all of his Philadelphia teammates before a Steelers preseason game vs. the Eagles.

* Villanueva was a defensive lineman when he was cut by the Eagles, and the Steelers thought he had some of the requisite characteristics of an offensive tackle and claimed him off waivers to try him at a different position. Both Parker and Villanueva worked their way onto the roster, and both were able to get from the bottom of the depth chart into the starting lineup by taking advantage of injuries to players ahead of them.

* With just two weeks remaining in this offseason program, Villanueva is without a contract because both sides are interested in a longer-term arrangement, but the reality is nothing has gotten done.

* There still is time, and Villanueva has shown his commitment to the Steelers by signing a participation agreement so he can participate in OTAs and minicamp. That’s a nice gesture on the player’s part, just as the Steelers have made a nice gesture by showing a willingness to pay Villanueva more than he possibly could earn over the next couple of years under the terms of the current CBA.

* Maybe Villanueva’s agent believes the Steelers should be offering more for the guy who’s their starting left tackle, just as it’s possible Parker’s agent believed his client should be getting more than an average of $3.4 million per year for the guy who was their starting running back and someone who had just helped them win a Super Bowl with a 75-yard touchdown in a game that ended, 21-10.

* Under different circumstances, that could’ve been correct. But these are a couple of players who entered the NFL from the bottom and found themselves limited early in their careers by the rules of the labor agreement. Parker was a running back whose body was sure to be exposed to a lot of wear-and-tear before getting a shot at the open market, and Villanueva is a still-developing left tackle who will be 30-going-on-31 when he hits unrestricted free agency in March 2019 and is able to discover what his market value might be.

* Willie Parker used the bird-in-a-hand approach and ended up earning slightly more than $14 million over six seasons in the NFL, and he got to do all of that with one team. He left the NFL with his name on two Lombardi trophies, he is a treasured member of the Steelers’ recent past, and he still enjoys all the rights and privileges that come with that status.

* There is a lesson somewhere in there for Alejandro Villanueva.

http://www.steelers.com/news/labriola-on/article-1/Labriola-on-Big-Al-learning-from-Fast-Willie/8486bc45-b232-4145-b79b-93ebeff3b1aa

[Shawn]

I don't think the Steelers coaches get enough credit for Villanueva. I mean what a homerun! To take some teams leftovers convert him to a new position and not only get depth but an above average starting LT? Are you serious? Genius. And to be frank, Villanueva does owe the Steelers some loyalty because without the Steelers he is selling insurance.

[SanAntonioSteelerFan]

Labriola on Big Al learning from Fast Willie
Posted 4 hours ago


Bob Labriola
Steelers.com

Alejandro Villanueva's situation today is similar to Willie Parker's in 2006.

Ready or not, here it comes: ...
...
http://www.steelers.com/news/labriola-on/article-1/Labriola-on-Big-Al-learning-from-Fast-Willie/8486bc45-b232-4145-b79b-93ebeff3b1aa

Great article (typical Labriola) - thanks for posting!

[squidkid]

wow, 'pay the man' for certain players that are dope heads, hurt and have years left on their contract, but F Villanova?

[RuthlessBurgher]

By Mike Florio
Jun 3, 2017, 3:35 PM EDT
Unsigned but practicing, Villanueva deserves a fair contract

When players use the rules to their advantage in order to benefit their financial positions, fans tend to complain that the players are being selfish. When teams do it, fans tend to shrug and say, “Them’s the rules.”

And so at a time when plenty of fans are wagging fingers at players who are skipping voluntary workouts in order to leverage better financial terms in an industry where careers entail finite years and no equity, it’s fair to point out that Steelers left tackle Alejandro Villanueva has no contract but is choosing to work out with the team as he awaits a long-term deal that the team has no legal obligation to give him, but nevertheless should. It’s also fair to point out that Steelers.com, the website owned by the team, is trying to put the squeeze on Villaneuva to trade his 2017 exclusive-rights free agent (i.e., not a free-agent) tender for 2017 and his looming restricted free agency tender for 2018 and his shot at the open market or franchise tag in 2019 for a deal that pays him well but not nearly as well as he could be paid if he waited for a shot at the open market.

The article points to the experience of former Steelers running back Willie Parker to advocate for Villanueva taking the best deal the Steelers are willing to offer with two years to go until free agency.

“Willie Parker used the bird-in-a-hand approach and ended up earning slightly more than $14 million over six seasons in the NFL, and he got to do all of that with one team,” Bob Labriola of Steelers.com writes. “He left the NFL with his name on two Lombardi trophies, he is a treasured member of the Steelers’ recent past, and he still enjoys all the rights and privileges that come with that status. There is a lesson somewhere in there for Alejandro Villanueva.”

Here’s a different lesson for Villanueva — tell the Steelers to stick it sideways. (It’s not really a lesson, but it was fun to type it.) The Steelers are trying to lowball Villanueva because they can, and they want to prey on the crappy circumstances that come from being undrafted to pay him less than he’s worth, both as a player and as a leader. The man who has appeared in every game over the past two seasons with 31 total starts should walk out and stay out until the team gives him a fair offer that rewards him for what he’s done and compensates him for what he’ll be expected to do.

Even if Villanueva sticks around, he should choose to go year to year, especially since by next year there could be a team willing to give up a late first-round pick for a chance to pry Villanueva away as a restricted free agent on a long-term deal closer to market value.

Whatever he chooses to do, Villanueva need to look out for his own interests. By not offering him the kind of deal he’s currently willing to sign and to use their in-house propaganda machine to try to pressure him to comply with a subpar deal, the Steelers are definitely looking out for theirs.

[feltdizz]

Florio is an idiot. Pretty sure AV knows he probably would be out of the league if we didn't give him a shot. He is also being coached by one of the best in the biz and has the luxury of playing for Ben after he finally bought into taking less sacks. Add in AB, Bell, etc and he is the beneficiary of some really good talent that probably hides some of his flaws. Now this doesn't mean AV shouldn't get paid or look out for his best interest but I think it's in his best interest to continue playing for us until we get a deal done.

[NorthCoast]

Florio is an idiot. Pretty sure AV knows he probably would be out of the league if we didn't give him a shot. He is also being coached by one of the best in the biz and has the luxury of playing for Ben after he finally bought into taking less sacks. Add in AB, Bell, etc and he is the beneficiary of some really good talent that probably hides some of his flaws. Now this doesn't mean AV shouldn't get paid or look out for his best interest but I think it's in his best interest to continue playing for us until we get a deal done.

yep. The Steelers will be fair. But they won't overpay. Funny how guys that underplay their pay never volunteer to give it back ...

[Iron City Inc.]

Rare circumstance but it behooves both sides to get a deal done early. For AV getting a four year deal soon with say apx 4 mil guaranteed sets him up well long term and apx 2-3-4-5 mil a year deal earlier then he's contracted for is like insurance. For the team 2 cheap years would be great but he could walk or request bucks (Gilbert makes 7.5 mil per) after that below cost 2 year period. For AV he'll be over 30 in a few and while tackles aren't running backs well he could be slowing down or breaking down factoring in injuries. NorthCoast point that the Steelers will be fair but wont overpay is spot on. Pay the man a little sooner but for less overall and the long term savings should help us with Tuitt and Bell extensions down the road. Left tackle is a key position. It's worth the investment imho. AV has proven he can play.

[Slapstick]

wow, 'pay the man' for certain players that are dope heads, hurt and have years left on their contract, but F Villanova?

And if they paid Villanueva, you would complain about that...

[Captain Lemming]

yep. The Steelers will be fair. But they won't overpay. Funny how guys that underplay their pay never volunteer to give it back ...

True, but the team can cut a player and thereby stop paying the contact.

[Steel Maniac]

True, but the team can cut a player and thereby stop paying the contact.

Which is the beautiful thing about football. If a player can't produce the way he needs to, you get cut. Such is real life.

[Shoe]

The Steelers could keep him for another couple of years for only a million or so dollars. Then two seasons from now, he could likely get an eight-figure contract on the open market. If you give him and his family some guaranteed security via a decent signing bonus today, he might accept a deal now that splits the difference between the $1-2 million he would be getting for 2017 and 2018 and the $10-12 million he might be able to get in 2019 and beyond.

Use the deal we gave Marcus Gilbert a few years ago as a basic framework (a 5 year extension worth $30,815,000 in new money with a $7,650,000 signing bonus). That Gilbert deal gave him a cap hit of $2.39M in 2014, $3.25M in 2015, $4.07M in 2016, $7.31M in 2017, $7.36M in 2018, and $6.64M in 2019. I could live with a similar payout schedule for Villenueva over the next several seasons.

That is a good point. The Gilbert deal locked Marcus up for a nice deal for the team. At the same time (at that time), it was a slight leap of faith by the team... a lot of people were questioning of the deal. Something like this should be done. In AV's case too, it makes a lot of sense too. I really don't think he's going to get that much better than he is... but he has proven that he can play LT effectively as a starter.

[Steel Maniac]

You can't pay ever O-lineman super duper money. That's just the reality of the league and salary cap.