Should the Steelers sign Plaxico Burress?

Plaxico Burress will be released from prison on June 6th. He’ll also be reinstated into the NFL by Roger Goodell and will be a free agent. 

Burress will be 34 years old and hasn’t played a snap of football since the 2008 season. Plenty of teams will still be interested in him. Should the Steelers be one of them?

Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook thinks so:

The Steelers owe it to themselves to reach out to Burress and Rosenhaus, if they already haven’t done so.

The contract price might be too high, especially if Rosenhaus isn’t exaggerating the interest in Burress. But what does it hurt to find out?

Roethlisberger is busy and was unavailable for comment — the big wedding, you understand — but I’m guessing he would be all for bringing Burress back.

Cook writes a lot of words about Burress, but never really gives any good football reasons as to why the team should ink Burress to a deal. 

There are plenty of reasons to believe it would be smart, though. While his age is a concern, plenty of NFL receivers are still being productive in their mid-to-late 30s. Just look at the AFC North: Hines Ward is 35. Derrick Mason and Terrell Owens are 37.  Burress would seem to be a ‘young’ 34 too. He’s had a few years off and hasn’t endured as much of a beating as somebody like Ward, who I’d consider to be an ‘old’ 35. 

It would seem that Burress would have plenty of motivation for the 2011 season too. He’s had a couple of years alone to grow up and, I’m sure, realize how lucky he has it to be playing football for a living. The Plaxico Burress of 2011 should be a lot different than the Burress of 2008.

Burress best attribute has never been his speed, it’s his freakish size — 6’5″, 232 pounds. That is a trait that won’t get rusty after taking a couple seasons off. 

So I’d wager that Burress will be a pretty productive player in 2011.  But would he be a good fit for the Steelers? 

Yes, Ben Roethlisberger was very close to him and Burress was his favorite target early in his career. And, yes, the Steelers lack a big receiving target, one of the reasons they have struggled so much in the red zone. That’s where the good fit seems to end though.

The Steelers are young at receiver and they have three guys that need a lot of snaps to continue to get better — Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown. Wallace has shown that he can be an elite receiver in the league, potentially a better player than Burress ever was. Sanders and Brown both impressed in their rookie year and will continue to get better. Hines Ward is still producing and Antwaan Randle-El had a nice playoff run and is under contract through 2012.

Burress would definitely be an upgrade in 2011 over Sanders, Brown and Randle-El. I don’t think he is worth the combination of money and the snaps he’d take from Sanders and Brown though. The Steelers would be better served going with the receivers they already have under contract and spending any free agency money on other positions.

Limas Sweed aside, the Steelers have always done an oustanding job of scouting and drafting good NFL wideouts. They can do that in a year or two when Ward and Randle-El retire and the need is greater at that position. Signing Burress would be cool, but it would add just a small amount of improvement to a position that the Steelers are already strong at. Signing a decent cornerback, for example, would have a lot more impact on the 2011 season.