PITTSBURGH -- The Steelers designated offensive tackle Max Starks as their franchise player Thursday, making it the second successive year that they have retained the two-time Super Bowl starter by placing the tag on him.
Starks made $6.9 million last year as a transition player, although he didn't begin the season as a starter. He ended up starting 11 games at left tackle after Marvel Smith was injured.
"We were happy we had Max Starks available to us when he was needed," Steelers director of football operations Kevin Colbert said. "We were fortunate that he was still here because he gave us an experienced guy who had played as a starter in the playoffs and in the Super Bowl."
Starks was the Steelers' right tackle when they won Super Bowl XL in the 2005 season.
By being designated a franchise player, Starks will make $15.35 million over the 2008 and 2009 seasons, unless he agrees to a long-term deal -- considerable money for the Steelers to pay a player who didn't make their starting lineup at the start of last season.
Starks must make $8.451 million in 2009, the average of the NFL's top five offensive linemen last season.
Another team could sign Starks because he is designated as non-exclusive, but that team would owe the Steelers two first-round draft picks.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
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