By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Those weren't dollar signs Alan Faneca saw yesterday, but a decade's worth of memories. His days with the Steelers have come to an end, and he will sign elsewhere, almost surely accepting another team's offer Friday, the start of another round of free agency in the NFL.
The Steelers could have made him their franchise player and forced him to work for them at least one more year. But they decided they could not pay him the kind of money he will earn as a perennial Pro Bowl guard and did not want to have him as a forced laborer. There has been virtually no contract talks going on because of it.
"No, nothing's happening," Faneca said yesterday from his home in Louisiana. "I've been preparing for this day for a year now; it is what it is."
Faneca, who made the past seven Pro Bowls and turned 31 in December, should receive a whopping contract in a free agent class bereft of top offensive linemen.
Still, he has spent time recently reflecting on his days with the Steelers after they drafted him in the first round from Louisiana State in 1998. He has started at left guard -- and in an emergency, left tackle -- every season since.
He has discarded the bitterness that occurred last spring when he realized the team would not extend his contract at the price he and agent Rick Smith believe he is worth.
"You spend 10 years somewhere and, you know, you go through the things you've been through with the guys there -- 10 years is a long time to make friends inside and outside the organization," Faneca said. "You know, it's 10 years! Ten years is a long time."
Faneca will join a list of Steelers stars who departed as free agents through the years, along with those who were released because team officials felt they no longer fit their salary structure or were injured. They include Rod Woodson, Greg Lloyd, Hardy Nickerson, Chad Brown, Leon Searcy, Carnell Lake, Joey Porter, Plaxico Burress, Levon Kirkland, Kevin Greene, Neil O'Donnell and more.
Faneca was the only guard who made the Steelers' 75th Season Anniversary Team last year.
The Steelers did put the transition tag on offensive tackle Max Starks last week, but that, too, might do little to keep him. Starks, who started two seasons at right tackle before losing that job to Willie Colon at the start of last season, might have resurrected his marketability in free agency by playing well down the stretch, particularly when he filled in for four games at left tackle for injured Marvel Smith.
Kevin Colbert, the club's director of player personnel, said they put the transition tag on Starks because they felt they had a better chance of signing him to a long-term contract. However, if Starks does not come to terms on a contract with the Steelers or sign their one-year, $6,895,000 tender required under the transition tag, he also will become an unrestricted free agent Friday.
Again, with the dearth of good linemen expected to come onto the market, Starks could quickly sign elsewhere for much more money. If he does, the Steelers could opt to match the deal or, if not, receive no compensation in return.
The Steelers have refrained from using the transition tag for most of the past 15 years of free agency because they felt it meant little, something the rest of the league also discovered. Starks is the only NFL player to receive the transition tag this year.
Faneca mentioned how, in 2006, Seattle put the transition tag on guard Steve Hutchinson but were helpless to match an offer Minnesota made because of a so-called "poison pill" inserted into the contract. Teams can make such contract offers in those situations, structuring a contract that would, say, guarantee Starks is the highest-paid offensive lineman on the team for the length of his contract.
"They'd have to hope his offer comes from a -- quote -- honorable team," Faneca said, "and that they not put in a clause that stipulates he can't play at Heinz Field."
The Steelers made a last-ditch effort to sign Faneca to an extension in August in a secret meeting with him. Colbert has said the team talked to Faneca's agent recently about a long-term deal, but there was not much substance to it.
"I think there was a brief conversation about where everything was headed," Faneca said.
Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.
First published on February 26, 2008 at 12:00 am
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