The 2016 season is unfortunately over, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are now embarking upon their latest offseason journey, heading back to the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, formerly known and still referred to as the ‘South Side’ facility of Heinz Field. While the postseason is now behind us, there is plenty left to discuss.
And there are plenty of questions left unanswered as well. The offseason is just really the beginning phase of the answer-seeking process, which is lasts all the way through the Super Bowl for teams fortunate enough to reach that far.
You can rest assured that we have the questions, and we will be monitoring the developments in the offseason as they develop, and beyond, looking for the answers as we look to evaluate the makeup of the Steelers as they try to navigate their way back to the Super Bowl, after reaching the AFC Championship game last season for the first time in more than half a decade.
Question: Will the Steelers make any notable attempts to add more players in free agency prior to the draft?
As we approach the end of the month of March, we know that the 2017 NFL Draft is not so far away. In fact, thanks to the handy countdown clock on the league’s own website, I easily know that we are now less than 36 days away from the start of the draft, which has become a three-day event.
While that is still five weeks away, and we have only gone through a couple of weeks of free agency, there is a settling reality that, frankly, the market has already largely run dry, outside of a couple of notable holdouts who were seemingly expecting to garner a higher dollar value than they have been able to find.
Aside from that, the Steelers have already added four players at four positions in need of an influx of depth. Pittsburgh generally likes to approach the draft having addressed some significant holes in order to prevent themselves from overreaching at any particular position.
Yet they still ultimately build their team through the draft, and not free agency, so if they take no further actions over the course of the next five weeks, it certainly would not be a great surprise. Four outside free agents that are likely to make the roster is already a pretty significant figure for them.
The Steelers will have eight selections with which to build their 2017 roster with new draft picks, including four in the top three rounds, which is quite a rarity for them. Future activity in free agency will likely come after the draft to address any linger obvious needs or to approach any newly released players they are interested in.
