Revisiting Villanueva’s contract talks
The subject of Alejandro Villanueva and his pending, or not so pending contract has been getting a lot of play lately. I wrote a piece a few weeks back about Big Al and his contract situation. Since then not a lot has changed, but the discussion has certainly seen an increase in both intensity and frequency.
Just the other day a minor Twitter war of words occurred between various writers as some writers threw shade at others over the varying opinions about what the Steelers should do.
Just take this opening salvo from Pro Football Talk:
Steelers use their in-house website to put the financial squeeze on LT Alejandro Villanueva https://t.co/yy9ld7hhfd
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) June 3, 2017
This sparked many to come to Labriola’s defense (not that he needed the help).
Actually the opinions of @BobLabriola do not always reflect the tone of the organization. This story came directly from his point of view. https://t.co/VAFvkuogLi
— Burt Lauten (@SteelersPRBurt) June 3, 2017
That PFT story misses on so many levels
— James C Wexell (@jimwexell) June 4, 2017
The story got further notice when ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler decided to, as Pearl Jam might put it “speak in class, today”. He added his two-cents to the conversation.
There appears to be two-sides to this story – those who think the Steelers should pony up and pay Big Al now (like Fowler) and those who think that’s a mistake, as Simon A. Chester expressed in his contribution to the discussion.
The thing is, as I stated in my earlier article, Al was a undrafted free agent, who was signed by the Eagles to be a defensive end. The Steelers saw him and thought he might make a good offensive tackle, and were willing to take that chance and offered him a contract after the Eagles cut him. The bottom line with the NFL, like it or not, is that it’s a business. Labriola points out that the Steelers have, in the past, rewarded players who over-performed, like Willie Parker. But Bob also makes a fair point when he says that players who make their way into the league from the bottom up are in many ways handicapped when it comes to salary.
Alejandro Villanueva was a risk that the Steelers decided to take. That risk has paid off for both Al and the Steelers. In his two seasons, Al has made well over a million dollars. Is that equitable to what most starting left tackles make? No, of course, it isn’t. But is it equitable compared to what most undrafted free agents, who were once cut by other teams, and then asked to switch positions when being signed by their current team?
Come on, you don’t seriously think that is a question that can be answered, do you? It’s a unique situation. Al is one of those rare gems who finds success despite humble beginnings.
Remember, he agreed to the terms of the contracts he has played under, and it’s not wrong for the Steelers to be rewarded for taking the risk of signing a completely unproven commodity. It is not Alejandro Villanueva who saw a starting left tackle in himself, but rather it was Mike Tomlin and Mike Munchak who saw it in him, and it was their coaching and faith in Al, as well as his dedication and work that made that happen.
The Steelers took a chance, and it paid off. Villanueva has been given the opportunity to live out a dream: the dream of being a professional football player. The idea that the Steelers are taking advantage of Villanueva is silly. They are operating their franchise in the way they always have.
Is a $650,000 contract really what Al is worth?
Of course not. But, as I have said before, and will say again, Al is a good and improving player, but he is not a top ten left tackle. He’s not even a top 15 left tackle.
Not yet.
Put this into perspective: Dak Prescott is making a whopping $540,000 base salary in 2017 as a fourth-round draft pick. His entire rookie contract is valued at about $2.7 million.
Where is the outrage for Dak? Where is the indignation that a starting quarterback in the NFL who took his team to the playoffs is making a measly $540K this year? (There isn’t any. And with good reason.) Think about it from that perspective: Al has one more year of playing time than Dak, and he is making slightly more money… as an undrafted player.
There is also a big part of this conversation that we simply do not know: how much have the Steelers offered Al? We can be sure it’s not what Al and his agent want or think they deserve, but we don’t know how much it is.
If they offered Al a contract for $15 million dollars over three years, is that a slap in the face? I don’t think so. For a player with only two full seasons of service, it doesn’t seem like it is.
Let me be clear – I have absolutely no knowledge of what the Steelers may or may not have offered Villanueva. But it’s certainly more than $650K. So what’s the right thing to do here? Should the Steelers be forced to overpay for a two-year veteran?
I don’t think so.
Should Al be forced to play for a vastly undervalued contract?
Again, I don’t think so.
The answer should be somewhere in the middle. Maybe a two-year contract for reasonable money, giving Al time to continue to hone his craft and still giving the Steelers some value for the chance they took on signing this young man; who at the time had absolutely nothing to other than the potential that the Steelers coaches saw in him. As I said above, the NFL is a business. Sometimes it’s just about business. The cold hard facts are this: Al will be 29 when the season starts and he will be entering his third season. The Steelers have another tackle (Jerald Hawkins) that is six years younger than Al, and who has excellent measurables and potential as well.
I like Al. He may be one of my favorite Steelers on the current team. I love rooting for him. I think his story is inspiring and amazing. But two years is not an exceptional body of work for a large contract. Factor in some other long-term deals looming for Pittsburgh as well. Do the Steelers lock up Al rather than Le’Veon Bell? Martavis Bryant? Ryan Shazier? Stephon Tuitt?
Probably not. The thing is, if they can’t work out a deal that allows the team to keep its nucleus intact, then there very well might not be a deal. The truth of the NFL is that this might be what you have to deal with. Do you want to keep Al over any of those guys?
I think a compromise can be made, and I think there is a reasonable option that rewards Al and benefits the team long-term. The question is, can the two sides get there?
And what if they don’t?
It has also been suggested that Al could choose to sit out the 2017 season, rather than play for his restricted tender. That would be a huge mistake. With Hawkins in the wings, choosing to give up your position and essentially be out of football for a year, wouldn’t be the first time a player got a chance because another player made a poor decision.
Only time will tell how this all works out, but the deadline for working out contracts is fast approaching. It’s going to be sooner rather than later that the choice of playing or not playing is going to be weighing on Alejandro Villanueva’s mind.
