FWIW, ESPN.com’s James Walker is reporting that talks between the Steelers and LB James Harrison have hit a snag over the amount of money in the extenstion.
“We’re talking and meeting pretty regularly, almost daily, but we’re having a difficult time getting to where we need to be,” (Silverback’s agent) Parise said. “I would say talks are progressing but not necessarily yielding the results that we would expect.”
Barring something unforeseen, the Steelers are not expected to have a deal in place with Harrison before the start of free agency on Friday.
Length is not the primary issue. Both sides have discussed a deal in the range of five to six years. But the two sides are far apart monetarily and how it would be distributed over the length of the contract.
I’m not totally sure what to make of this yet. It’s curious that the Post Gazette has not reported on this as of Wednesday evening, which makes me think Silver’s agent Bill Parise just called ESPN up to gain some leverage.
I’m pretty convinced that the Steelers will give Harrison whatever he wants, but a part of me also thinks that they should only be willing to pay so much to retain his services after his current deal expires in 2010.
Harrison is already 30 years old and likely only has another season or two before he starts to significantly drop off in production. I’m all for signing the guy, but I’m not sold on paying him millions of dollars when he’s 34 or 35 and really starting to slow down.
Still, this is most likely a tactical move by Parise and I don’t expect this to be a major issue. Harrison is certainly worth a lot of money and the Rooney’s realize it. But, to me at least, his value is a lot less at 30 than it would be at say 27 or 28. The Rooney’s also realize that too and want to structure the contract accordingly so they aren’t paying him loads of money late in the deal.
If I’m Harrison’s agent, I just walk in the room and play this video over and over again until my demands are met.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=
EoxSFBHbA80[/youtube]
