It’s the last day teams can sign restricted free agents to contracts and it appears as though tendering wide receiver Mike Wallace at just a first-round level is going to pay off for Pittsburgh.

I think the Steelers had even semi-resigned themselves to losing the wideout, who reportedly wants a new contract that pays him as a top five receiver.

Now, those contract demands likely hurt his cause. Wallace is a very good receiver with some dynamic numbers – 18.7 yards per catch and 24 touchdowns in his first three seasons. But he also disappears for stretches too. He’s on his way toward the top, but does not yet belong in the same category as a Larry Fitzgerald, a Calvin Johnson or an Andre Johnson, among others.

But he’s a top-notch downfield receiver and with several teams later in the draft looking for help at the position — and a couple them holding two first-round picks — I thought there was a good chance Wallace would be one of the rare restricted free agents who got snatched, perhaps even by a team in the same division as the Steelers.

What better way for an up-and-coming team like Cincinnati to bridge the gap between the two teams than snag their number one wide receiver? And what a trio of skill players that signing would have made. Andy Dalton would have had a nice problem on his hands in deciding whether to distribute to Wallace, second-year gem A.J. Green or tight end Jermaine Gresham.

Super Bowl runner-up New England, which got great production from tight ends but not so much from receivers not named Wes Welker was another of my speculated targets. So was San Francisco, where Alex Smith had, by far, his best season in 2011, despite throwing the ball to Vernon Davis, disappointing Michael Crabtree and a collection of journeymen.

But instead of kicking the tires on Wallace, San Francisco went with Randy Moss and Mario Manningham. New England instead went with Brandon Lloyd and a couple of retreads, Donte Stallworth and Anthony Gonzalez.

Richard Hill, an assistant editor with Pats Pulpit, notes that the cost might not be worth the payoff for Wallace. “He would come at a double-price of both a draft pick and a hefty contract extension, two things the Patriots most likely won’t be willing to spend on a receiver they don’t know can fit into their offense,” he said in an interview with Zoneblitz, adding that the team also brought back Chad Johnson and Julian Edelman and could still add someone in the draft.

I’m personally not a big believer in Lloyd, but he is being reunited with Josh McDaniels in New England. And as a complement to Welker and tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, Lloyd probably does fit quite well. I would still take Wallace over Lloyd, Stallworth and Gonzalez, but the Patriots are not going to be hurting for offense.

The Bengals were the team I really hoped would make a run at Wallace. The Steelers are a division rival. Cincinnati has an up-and-coming team with a quarterback who seemed to really get it during his rookie season. And, as mentioned, teaming Wallace and A.J. Green could create an amazingly dynamic offense.

But Josh Kirkendall, managing editor of CincyJungle, was even more adamant than Hill that the Steeler was unlikely to be added.

“No chance on Wallace,” he said, adding that the Bengals appear ready to give former Cincinnati Bearcat wideout Armon Binns a shot as the number two receiver opposite Green this season. “The core for our reasoning is that we don’t see the Bengals giving up a first-round pick to their division rivals while giving Wallace the long-term money he wants with someone like A.J. Green, who will command a significant salary when he’s due for an extension, already on the roster.”

It’s a fair point. Given the emergence of Antonio Brown last year I’m almost thinking the Steelers would have been fine watching Wallace walk in exchange for a first and I can see why the Bengals might have been hesitant to give that up to a rival.

But the pick is in the latter third of the round and we all know how often first-round picks end up being busts. If the Bengals’ brass still sees this team as a couple years away from being a real contender for a championship, maybe passing up Wallace right now is the right move.

But I see Cincinnati, with a few good moves, having a shot to make a move this year. Pittsburgh has salary cap issues and will likely take a small step backward in 2012. And Baltimore is captained on offense by a quarterback in Joe Flacco who himself took a step back in 2011 and on defense by a collection of great, great players who are fast approaching the ends of their careers.

It’s a win now league and I’d have strongly considered taking the risk of adding Wallace, giving Pittsburgh the draft pick and hoping it paid off in a deep playoff run for the Bengals. Instead, Cincinnati has stuck with what has been a fairly passive approach to free agency in the Mike Brown-era. And in so doing I think the team may have missed an opportunity.

Whether the Steelers hoped their gamble with Wallace would pay off or not, it appears the league saw it more the way Hill and Kirkendall do than the way I did. And at least in the short-term, Pittsburgh will probably be better off for it.