NFL Owners Pass Steelers’ Rule Change
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Pittsburgh Steelers’ proposal regarding contact with free agents during the negotiating window passed with some modification on a one-year trial basis, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Teams now can have one video or phone call with no more than five prospective unrestricted free agents during the contact period that starts at noon on Monday before the start of the new league year. Teams can now also book travel upon agreeing to terms.
Previously, teams could only have contact through the agents of players that are pending unrestricted free agents of other clubs, while they can have whatever type of meeting they like with their own pending free agents and players who have been released by their previous team.
“I do think it’s an improvement in terms of really being able to talk to the player himself and rather than just his agent in that negotiating window,” Rooney said. “So, you know, we think it’s an improvement.”
This season, the Steelers traded for DK Metcalf and agreed to terms with Darius Slay and Malik Henderson early in the contract period, but they weren’t able to get them to Pittsburgh to finalize those deals until the Thursday following the start of the new league year.
The ban on the “tush push” was tabled until a future meeting in May, but Rooney II said the team supported that ban.
“We were in favor of the rule as proposed,” Rooney said at the NFL owner’s meeting on Tuesday. “It’s a fairly narrow proposal in terms of just eliminating the ability to push the quarterback on a quarterback sneak. So we were in favor of that.”
According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, there were 16 teams who were in favor of banning the tush push. That’s eight short of the amount needed for the proposal to pass.
Rooney said the Steelers were not in favor of the Detroit Lions’ proposal to change to the way the NFL seeds its teams in the playoffs. That was a significant point of contention in the NFC last year, where the 14-3 Vikings had the second-best record, but were seeded fifth because they did not win the ultra-competitive NFC North. The proposal did not pass.
“We were against the playoff seeding,” Rooney explained. “We think that division rivalries are one of the more important parts of the competition, and (we) just don’t want to do anything to upset that.”
Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.