Jim Steiner Quotations

Whether they would even attempt to keep him and what the other opportunities might be is difficult to say at this point, ... I'd never say never as it relates to 49ers, but it appears if you have a No.1 pick and $24 million guarantee going to a player, there would be an accelerated time frame to get him on the field.

If they were prepared to pay him $1 million to retire, you can't say it was a money thing, ... It was just a personnel decision to not bring him back. Case closed.

He has done everything he can possibly do to warrant a new contract with Seattle. But that's the business of the NFL.

What is affecting them are the basic rules (currently in place).

I think there is some interest on both sides. I think Jerry would love to play for Mike again.

I was there to make a deal and I wanted to make it on my own terms a little bit. But I couldn't make it on my own terms. They just weren't prepared to give me their best shot right now.

I think it will happen at some point. We just don't know when. We haven't talked to the 49ers yet.

I think it will happen at some point, ... We just don't know when. We haven't talked to the 49ers yet.

That's what his goal was. That's what he wanted.

We came pretty close, but we just couldn't get it closed. We just had to leave it alone for a while. We sort of got stuck, like you do when you can't get a deal. But we had a good productive meeting and we left on a good note.

We still have some very serious negotiating to do between now and March 3.

We still have a lot of negotiating to do with the club. He has done everything he can possibly do to warrant a new contract with Seattle. But that's the business of the NFL.

We still have a lot of negotiating to do with the club.

We don't know yet. It depends on what the deal is. There are ongoing discussions. They are trying to work it out.

This was a personnel decision on the part of the 49ers. It was a decision to go with younger players versus the veteran. It's a philosophy. They have the right to have that philosophy, but I'm not going to let them off the hook by calling it a cap decision and letting them cloak it in that language. They have younger receivers that they want to play.

This was a personnel decision on the part of the 49ers, ... It was a decision to go with younger players versus the veteran. It's a philosophy. They have the right to have that philosophy, but I'm not going to let them off the hook by calling it a cap decision and letting them cloak it in that language. They have younger receivers that they want to play.

What's at stake is his career as a starter in the NFL, ... whether it's with 49ers or anybody else.

We're going to be prepared to make a deal. We're going to talk numbers. We're going to be prepared to make a deal if they are.

Elvis had to take some risk in order to become a Raven. They needed his first-year cap number to be low, and the deal wasn't going to happen unless we agreed to that structure. That was not negotiable. He's certainly not worried about his playing ability and he's totally covered relative to injury. Baltimore is where he wanted to play.

They've got an issue with the cap. As it is right now, they can't add without subtracting.

It's a good move for him, ... He'll be surrounded by good players and good coaches on a good football team. No disrespect to the 49ers, but Tampa is 5-1 and the 49ers are 1-4.

It'll probably go down to the last hour Thursday night.

They definitely wanted to do this. And Seattle was Shaun's first choice all along.

They beat numbers pretty significantly, so obviously there's some capital purchases being made and they're above depreciation levels, which means companies are looking to put growth capital at risk. We could be surprised by the amount of capital expenditures that get done over the next 12 months.

The retirement thing came down very quickly with Jerry. It came a week ago Saturday, and by the following Monday Labor Day he was announcing his retirement. We had about an hour together before that happened.

No time soon. This all happened so quickly.

I really don't know. It's just one of those strange occurrences.

I guess that could occur. But that's not likely.

I think 30 to 50 percent of teams won't participate in free agency, because they won't be able to. It's going to be tougher for the teams, tougher for the players, tougher for the agents.

For the first time we as Americans were acutely aware of what you do,

And it could have been to their advantage.