The New England Patriots have given us something to talk about on a relatively slow day of sports news. The NFL Network is reporting that the Patriots have signed a one-year offer sheet for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders.
Per Ian Rapoport:
The #Patriots have submitted an offer sheet for #Steelers RFA/WR Emmanuel Sanders, I'm told. It's a one-year deal. No details yet.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 10, 2013
The Steelers will have five days to match, so the team will have up until Monday to match. If they fail to match the offer sheet, they will get the Patriots third-round pick.
Pittsburgh is now in a tough situation.
There are no details about the terms of the offer sheet, but New England has more salary cap space so they could structure a deal that would make it tough for the Steelers to match. If Pittsburgh would want to keep Sanders, they would likely have to restructure the deal of safety Troy Polamalu to free up the extra space.
Pittsburgh could very well enter next season without Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders and a starting caliber running back.
Their weapons have quickly evaporated.
Pittsburgh will try to keep Sanders, so we will have to see if they are successful. If not, the Patriots pulled off a nice steal just before the 2013 NFL Draft.
That’s plenty of time for Pittsburgh to regroup and determine which offensive weapons they will add to their roster through the draft.