STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The Steelers would have gotten by with the tight ends they already had.
That wasn't good enough. So they got another.
The Steelers might ... maybe ... OK-probably-not have gotten by with the cornerbacks they had opposite Artie Burns.
That wasn't good enough. So they got Joe Haden.
Some will see that as par for the course. Because, of course, every year, the goal of this franchise -- spoken loudly and proudly, backed by action -- is to win the Super Bowl. And not just from the top. During a halftime presentation at Heinz Field a couple of weeks ago, Sean Davis, accepting his award as the team's top rookie in 2016, grabbed the microphone and boomed out to the crowd, "We're out to win No. 7 for y'all!"
That's how they think. That's how they act.
That's how another team in town thinks and acts.
Haden might not be the answer, but he also might. After two years of seldom suiting up for the Browns because of injuries, then offseason groin surgery, there's no rational reason to expect he'll instantly rediscover peak form. He might even be a bust, if the Steelers did their health homework on him as efficiently as they did with Ladarius Green.
And yet, he's only 28. And he was stuck in Cleveland, where something as subtle as solid man coverage wasn't going to be appreciated the way it would somewhere -- anywhere -- else. Where he might not have benefited from those extra juices that flow only in high-impact scenarios.
It's worth a shot, though. So is Vance McDonald.
No, it's not a break from the Steelers' norm. They've spent up to the cap for years, and their last real rebuilding year came in 1969 under a rookie coach named Charles Henry Noll. This is just what they do.
But I'll be damned if that isn't the single most uplifting aspect of following this franchise.
• That said, slot corner comes next. Willie Gay is a beautiful human being and has had a fine NFL career, but he can't be sacred here. If Cameron Sutton and/or Mike Hilton can outrun him, they can outplay him.
• Ugly as the Pirates' loss was at Wrigley Field last night, it wasn't uglier than the prospect of Ivan Nova being a very, very expensive mistake, with his post-break ERA now at 6.38 and two years left on his three-year $26 million contract.
But sorry, I'm not there. I loved the trade, I loved his arrival, I loved his 3.21 ERA through the first half of this season, and I can't come close to accepting that someone who pitched so freely, so easily, can't channel that again. Everyone with whom I've spoken inside the organization, including the man himself, swears he's 100 percent healthy. Ray Searage told me recently there might be an issue with a release point. That's correctable.
It can't be a popular position, but I believe in Nova.
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