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The Steelers decision to franchise Max Starks may seem puzzling, but for a team that just won the Super Bowl, it's a pretty logical move.By tagging Starks, Pittsburgh ensures that it doesn't head into free agency with a gaping hole. With Starks locked up, Pittsburgh could start the season with Starks, Kendall Simmons, Justin Hartwig, Darnell Stapleton and Willie Colon. It's not a good line; in fact, it's a pretty poor one, but it's not really any worse than the one that won the Super Bowl.
But if the Steelers didn't franchise Starks, they could have headed into free agency with no plan B. If Starks did somehow decide to leave, Pittsburgh would have been left either to overpay among a pretty mediocre crop of free agent tackles, re-sign Marvel Smith in hopes that he can stay healthy for the first time in three years or count on a draft pick to step in and start. The Steelers would have potentially been stuck in an untenable situation with no reliable option to protect Ben Roethlisberger as they started their Super Bowl defense.
But maybe the best thing about the franchise tag is that it ties the Steelers to Starks for only one year. The Post-Gazette is reporting that the Steelers are looking to work out a long-term deal with Starks, but does Pittsburgh really want to do that? Starks is a player you're always trying to replace -- something the Steelers keep proving by benching him in each of the past two years. If the Steelers can draft a long-term left tackle, the franchise tag would allow them to move on to either a draft pick or Tony Hills in 2010, while letting Starks fill the stopgap role in the meantime.
But Starks is arguably the second best lineman the Steelers have (and Hartwig isn't much better than Starks). So by franchising him, the Steelers are able to slap a bandage on the paper cut at left tackle, while working on fixing the gaping wounds at guard and right tackle. Now the Steelers can try to upgrade the rest of the line with some draft picks. If they draft a tackle, they could see if he can beat out Colon, then slide Colon inside to compete for a guard spot. Or if they draft a guard or center, they could see if the draft pick could beat out Simmons or Stapleton. Or ideally, they can do both.
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