Early yesterday, a PIttsburgh newspaper reported that a handful of teams are reportedly interested in trading for disgruntled Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace. Earlier this week, reports came out that Wallace did not intend on signing his tender and would miss out on offseason workouts. This could very well lead to an extended holdout similar to what Vincent Jackson conducted in 2010. Jackson returned in time to get credit for an accrued season so he could become a free agent the following offseason.
There were some queries on Twitter about whether the 49ers might try and trade for Wallace. I think it's worth quashing those rumors at this point. While it is entirely possible this holdout drags on, I have to think trade rumors at this point have been placed out there by Wallace's agent. He is looking for any kind of leverage, and a trade at this point might in fact cost less than the RFA tender of a first round pick.
Of course, potentially more important than that is the fact that Wallace is looking for a monster contract. Even if the rumors of a Larry Fitzgerald-type deal are exaggerated, coming down from that exaggeration is still in a pretty monstrous neighborhood. Initially it seemed way out of any possible price range for the 49ers, but after some reflection, I suppose we should not put anything past Paraag Marathe. Nonetheless, I just don't see this happening.
Feel free to bookmark this and call me on it if the 49ers do trade for Wallace this offseason, but otherwise I'm pretty confident in that. Most folks may agree with that, but I figured it was at least worth addressing to some extent.