Free agency is usually a pretty quiet time for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The biggest news most years is the team cutting a veteran player like Joey Porter or Antwaan Randle-El and rarely does the franchise get into bidding wars for the services of star players via free agency.
The team’s commitment to building through the draft and adding complementary players instead of stars is one of the biggest reasons they are competitive nearly every season.
That said, it is hard not to be a little bit worried when the team enters the 2011 season without making much, if any, improvements on their two biggest weaknesses: offensive line and pass defense.
Teams who were able to beat the Steelers in 2010 typically did so by putting pressure on Ben Roethlisberger and dominating the Steelers’ patchwork offensive line and by aggressively attacking the team’s secondary with a quick passing attack. As it stands now, those tactics will likely work against the team in 2010 as well.
On the offensive line, the Steelers return their three interior lineman — Chris Kemoeatu, Maurkice Pouncey and Trai Essex. Doug Legursky has also proven to be a valuable backup who can play all three positions. On tackle, the team started Jonathan Scott and Flozell Adams and left and right tackle in the Super Bowl, respectively. Adams has since been released and the team re-signed now healthy RT Willie Colon who will become the team’s starting RT. Colon is probably a slight upgrade at RT over Adams, but Scott, to borrow a baseball term, is the definition of replacement level. He’s certainly one of the poorer starting LT’s in the NFL.
Pouncey will likely improve in year two and Kemoeatu is one of the best run blockers in the game, but the unit as a whole remains very shaky and a weakness on the team. Rookie OT Marcus Gilbert might get a shot, but he’s a long ways away from being a capable starter, one would think. There’s no real reason to expect the offensive line to perform better in 2011 than it did in 2010.
The team’s most glaring weakness last season was defending the pass. The starting defensive backs last year were Ike Taylor, Bryant McFadden, Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark. All four return and will almost certainly lead the depth chart in their positions. The scary thing is you could argue that three of the four have already played their best football and, collectively, they didn’t play very well last year despite an MVP season from Polamalu.
As far as the depth chart goes, it too will look pretty similar to 2010. Likely gone from last year is William Gay, but the Steelers drafted Curtis Brown and Cortez Allen in April. Whether they turn into Devin McCourty or Joe Burnett remains to be seen, but returning players like Keenan Lewis, Ryan Mundy and Crezdon Butler will enter training camp as the next DBs in line.
While the names remain largely the same in the defensive backfield, the one wild card the Steelers might have working in their favor is health. Polamalu and McFadden were both very beat up during the playoffs and were embarrassed by Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay during the Super Bowl. A healthy Polamalu alone could have been enough to swing the tide during that game in an entirely different direction.
The Steelers best bet to improve in pass defense is to simply stay healthy. That’s not a high percentage fix given the age and injury history of the group’s best defenders.
So while the Steelers long-term personnel strategy is sound and adding young talent like Gilbert, Brown and Allen will one day pay off, it is somewhat frustrating to see other AFC powers making huge splashes the past few days that will make their team immediately better this season. (Even if the Steelers go out and get Plaxico Burress, they are making an already great WR corps a little bit better while remaining weak in other areas.)
The Steelers have as good of a shot to win the Super Bowl as anybody this season and with many of the team’s core players nearing their mid-30s, this could be the best chance at another Lombardi Trophy for a couple of years at least. Here’s to hoping that the team’s long term strategy of building through the draft finds a way to pay off in the short term as well.
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