Steelers Sign Free Agent S Mike Mitchell; Latest On Salary Cap

UPDATED: 3/12/14
After two seasons of being in rarely-traveled waters, the Pittsburgh Steelers took measures to counter that...by going into rarely-traveled waters.

On the first day of free agency, the Steelers unexpectedly dove into the free agent pool and signed former Oakland Raiders and Carolina Panthers safety, Mike Mitchell. 

The 6'1", 216-pound Mitchell, 26, was drafted by the Raiders in 2009 and spent his first four seasons in Oakland. He saw his best season in 2013, though, after signing a one-year deal with the Panthers. A first-time starter, Mitchell recorded 72 tackles, 10 passes defenses, four interceptions and two forced fumbles in 13 starts (15 games total) on the NFL's No. 2 defense.

This is a day after the Steelers announced other transactions affecting their secondary as cornerback Ike Taylor accepted a pay cut to stay with the Steelers. A cut from his original $7 million salary to $2.75 million, which saves the team $4.25 million in Salary Cap room.

Taylor's Cap hit was lowered to $7.692 million, down from $11.942 million. Meaning the Steelers started the day at approximately $7.3 million under the Cap.

Also on Monday, outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley was released with a June 1st designation. Officially released Tuesday, Woodley is now free to sign with another team, but the Steelers won't benefit from the $8 million Cap savings until June 2nd. He also carries a $5.59 million dead money hit this year and $8.58 million in 2015.

The aforementioned amount made it possible to sign Mitchell. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the "Steelers gave former Panthers S Mike Mitchell a five-year, $25 million deal, per source." If It Ain't Steel is expecting $7.5-$10 million guaranteed. UPDATE: Per ESPN's David Todd, it carried a $5.25 million with a $4.75 million signing bonus prorated over five years. He will count $2.2 million against the Cap this year.

Mitchell's receiving what basically can be considered a starter's contract means that he will replace free safety Ryan Clark in the Steelers secondary.

He will replace RC25 in more ways than one: he's a hard-hitting player who can play both safety positions and is adept at getting to the quarterback. According to Pro Football Focus, he is "one of the best blitzing safeties in the league, generating 11 pressures and four sacks on just 23 pass rushes.”

Mitchell was ranked as PFF's 10th best FA safety on the market. In their ranking they also speak on his shortcomings in writing that he has "major questions against the run. No safety missed more tackles than his 18.” - https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/02/21/ranking-the-2014-free-agents-safeties/

Most of that can be chalked up to aggression, however, as Mitchell is known to look for the big hit.

Despite his four interceptions, he isn't a great cover guy. Good, but not great. His 4.39/40 speed does help, however.

Still, Troy Polamalu seems to be the Steelers better safety in coverage, therefore. Since defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau likes to use his safeties interchangeably, don't expect a move from strong safety to FS for Polamalu. Though it will allow him to step outside the box (no pun intended), as he had the most snaps among safeties in the box at 79.8%.

His addition, plus the presence of recently re-signed Will Allen and 2nd-year man Shamarko Thomas takes away safety as a position of need in the draft.

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TIDBITS: Steelers finally announce the re-signing of safety Will Allen. The Steelers also announced the signing of C/G Cody Wallace to a three-year contract, which likely sounds the death knell of C/G Fernando Velasco, and of 10-year veteran Long Snapper Greg Warren. Term have to be disclosed.

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Defensive end Al Woods will visit the Tennessee Titans on Wednesday.UPDATED: Per Ed Bouchette, Woods has signed with the Titans.

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Don't assume the Steelers are done for now, though. If the Steelers stay in the free agent waters, their next move might be a backstroke to a linebacker.

A Mike Wallace Sighting, David Gilreath Looks Inviting

Stop me if you've heard this one.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat reporter Ed Bouchette and Beaver County Times reporter Mike Bires wrote Tuesday that the Steelers expect wide receiver Mike Wallace is in town and is expected to sign his tender soon. Possibly after the Steelers play the Buffalo Bills in Saturday's third preseason game.

If so, Wallace would have two weeks of practice before the Steelers play the Broncos in the Sunday night season opener, and it has people talking. - http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/53068/video-discussing-wallaces-return-to-steelers?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Note, though, that I wrote "if."

Until Wallace joins the team, Wallace hasn't joined the team. It is, though, good news if true.

While it would avail Wallace of some action in the team's last preseason game on August 30th at the Carolina Panthers, more importantly it would give Wallace and the Steelers time to resume negotiations for a long-term contract. As we've written before, the Steelers don't negotiate unless a player with the team.

Then again...

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review beat reporter Mark Kaboly posted to Twitter some time after that: "For what it is worth, Ike says Mike Wallace isn't in town."

It's appropriate that all of this is happening in the month of Elvis' death because only he's had more unconfirmed sightings than Wallace.

Per CBS Sports, Mike Tomlin echoes that sentiment saying on: "Like I said from day one (when) I reported to training camp, I'll see him when he arrives."

Mark Kaboly came back again with a reassuring vote of...confidence(?) from Ike Taylor, saying: "We are going to shoot to Davios as soon as he touches down and I'm going to tweet you as soon as they give us our tab."

Bottom line: when Mike Wallace gets here is when he'll get here. Until then, what's a Zoltan?

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This was my reply to a Steelers fan and gentleman who goes by @ScottsdaleSteve on Twitter when he suggested that Jason Ford and David Gilreath, among others were doing very well and would all make the team: "Gilreath and Ford are camp bodies only. Dwyer and Rainey may cause Batch to be on the practice squad, though." 

As Lee Corso would say, not so fast, my friend. It looks like I was wrong about one of those. 

Wide receiver David Gilreath, who's 5’10" and 170 pounds soaking wet and carrying a brick, is a product out of Wisconsin who's been on the practice squads of three teams, Indianapolis, Buffalo and St. Louis. He may have done enough against the Colts to move himself into candidacy for the fifth WR spot. He's a special teams guy as well and could easily round out the receiver corps. - http://blogs.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/sports/blog-n-gold/35115-gilreath-makes-case-for-final-wr-spot?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Neal Coolong of BehindTheSteelCurtain.com agrees and tweeted this on his personal Twitter account: "We've officially got our Training Camp Darling...congratulations David Gilreath. You are the front-runner for the 5WR position.” 

So, that may create a solution for figuring out the 53-man roster. With Gilreath emerging, that means listing Chris Rainey as a running back, though it might be at the expense of Baron Batch. 

Listing Rainey as a PR/KR for specials teams would, yes, still allow him to be used in different spots of the offense, but the same could be said of listing him as a RB. He can easily line in the slot as well.

We at If It Ain't Steel had suggested a few times he be used not only as a receiver, but listed as one also. Coolong, though, made a good point about that in a discussion we had recently. He pointed out that since "RBs can't go on the [line of scrimmage] and WRs can't line up in the backfield w/o reporting as eligible." 

Very true. A great offensive coordinator, though, can scheme ways to get Rainey his touches. Just, as Coolong, "don't get cute and list him as something he isn't. He'll def play in the slot, but you want him out backfield too” 

Fair enough. Maybe not the listing, but definitely the utilization. Remember those Bugs Bunny cartoons where Bugs played all the positions on the baseball field? "Bugs Bunny, shortstop. Bugs Bunny, left field. Bugs Bunny, centerfield. Bugs Bunny, right field...." That'll be Chris Rainey. He just can't get knocked out by a wide receiver on kick returns like in his first return of the game. He needs to remember the words of ol' crackhead Ezal from the movie Friday, "You shoulda been bobbin' and weavin'!"