The Pittsburgh Steelers have long adhered to a policy that they won’t negotiate contract extensions with players once the season starts, only negotiating before Week 1 and whenever the season ends. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio talked about his distaste for the policy on The PM Team on 93.7 The Fan earlier today.
“What a stupid policy, too. For all the things the Steelers do right, and I love the Steelers organization, I’ve been in and around Pittsburgh my whole life. I feel like I understand that team more than any other. I don’t understand this rule,” Florio said. “This rule that says once you start playing games, we can’t…the whole sport is one big distraction. You’re out on the field, you’ve got somebody across from you trying to do the exact opposite of what you’re doing. That’s a distraction. It’s not a distraction to do business during the five or six days between games.”
Florio said the Steelers are putting themselves at a disadvantage by not doing something that’s allowed by the CBA.
“When you put rules on yourself and limit your ability to do business as well as you possibly could, you’re hurting yourself for no reason,”
The policy seemingly hasn’t caused too many issues, and this year, the Steelers were able to wrap up extensions with TE Pat Freiermuth and DL Cameron Heyward ahead of the season. Where it could come into play, and where the context of the discussion came from, is if the team trades for WR Davante Adams. If the Steelers did acquire Adams, it would buck precedent and a policy they said they wouldn’t even break for a team legend like Heyward if they worked on a new contract with him during the season.
That’s not something I would foresee the Steelers doing, with any negotiations happening after season’s end. But Florio has a point that the Steelers are needlessly hurting themselves. Plenty of teams negotiate contracts in-season and it isn’t an issue, but the Steelers’ philosophy is they want guys focused on the games and not their contracts and wallets. It’s understandable from a philosophical perspective, but there are scenarios where it could wind up costing the Steelers more money at the end of the season than it would’ve in-season.
But it’s not a policy that the Steelers are going to change, and if it costs them more money, so be it. The organization holds firm to its values, and it won’t be changing its negotiation policy any time soon.
