Last month, safety Ryan Clark said that he didn’t want 2013 to be his final season with the Steelers.
There’s been no action since then to guarantee Clark will remain in Pittsburgh, however. Clark told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that there have been no talks about a new deal. Clark said that he hoped that talks would get going as the calendar moves closer to the start of training camp, but that he wouldn’t approach the season any differently should the Steelers remain silent.
“I still play, I still love this game, I want to be here and I want this team to do well,” Clark said.
Clark turns 34 in October, an age that usually doesn’t bring multi-year deals to the table even when you’ve been a longtime fixture on the defense. Clark’s play has remained strong enough to think he could continue playing well beyond 2013, but finite cap space and an organizational commitment to getting younger mean that he may need to do that playing somewhere else if the Steelers decide to see what rookie safety Shamarko Thomas can do before making any calls on Clark’s future in Pittsburgh.
