Here's another shocker in the Santonio Holmes trade:
If a trade hadn't been worked out with the Jets, the Steelers were going to release him, according to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
They took the best deal they could find late Sunday night -- a fifth-round choice in the April 22-24 draft from the New York Jets. It was the best offer they received after talking to a number of other NFL teams about trading Holmes.
The conversation on the morning after the trade has been why the Steelers couldn't get more for Holmes, which makes this report even more surprising.
It was Bouchette who reported a few weeks back that Holmes could be the fall guy for all the negative attention the Steelers organization has been receiving lately. It's likely he was hinting at the possibility of a move like this.
If Bouchette's report was accurate, then the Steelers distaste for Holmes was even deeper than we previously thought.