The Pittsburgh Steelers got right to work on the first day of the 2014 league year when they signed Carolina Panthers unrestricted free agent safety Mike Mitchell to a five-year, $25 million contract and while it’s yet to be seen if any other big name unrestricted free agents from other teams will be added to the fold, they’re not forgetting about their own that they wish to re-sign.
According to a Tuesday evening report by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Steelers are unsurprisingly currently attempting to re-sign veteran wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery, who caught 46 passes for 604 yards and a team-high 10 touchdowns last season.
With it currently looking like unrestricted free agent wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders will leave for greener pastures over the course of the coming days, the Steelers will certainly need Cotchery again in 2014 to help absorb that loss and also have him continue to mentor second-year wide receiver Markus Wheaton, and potentially an early-round draft pick in May.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said after the 2013 season ended that he would like to have both Sanders and Cotchery back in 2014, but that he also understands the business of the game might not allow that to happen when it comes to the former.
“I would love for J-Co to come back and my thing is that I always want everybody back,” Roethlisberger said in February radio interview. “I would love for Emmanuel [Sanders] to be back and we know that it’s a business and people have to do what’s best for their family, and the team’s never the same. We always get new guys and we lose guys, but I hope they’re both back.”
Two years ago, Cotchery signed a two-year, $3 million contract and one could easily speculate that another deal similar to that one ought to be enough to get the 31 year-old wide receiver to re-sign. Look for this to happen sooner rather than later.
