Steelers Welcome Back Charlie Batch at Cheap Price

As expected, Charlie Batch wasn't far from the phone when the Steelers found out that Byron Leftwich was going elsewhere. And just a couple of days later, the word from the Post-Gazette is that Batch is signing a one-year deal with the Steelers to return as the team's backup.

Batch has made it clear that he likes playing in his hometown of Pittsburgh, but it was never more clear than in this newest deal. According to the P-G, Batch is signing for $745,000 with a signing bonus of $50,000. That is the veteran minimum for a player with Batch's tenure, but more importantly, because of NFL salary cap rules to encourage teams to sign veterans, it means that Batch will only cost $510,000 on the Steelers' 2009 cap.

So for less than the cost of a veteran long-snapper, Pittsburgh will be able to bring back a quarterback who's both a coach on the sidelines and a decent backup option. And because Batch is on a one-year deal, if Dennis Dixon continues to progress, Pittsburgh can slide Dixon into the No. 2 spot in 2010 if he's ready without worrying about any cap ramifications.

Signing Batch also almost assuredly means the Steelers are not going to draft a quarterback, and will simply sign an undrafted free agent to be the No. 4 quarterback/camp arm. It's not as ideal as having Leftwich backing up Roethlisberger, but there are a lot of team's out there with worse backups.