The Steelers likely won't be active on the free agent market by the time Friday rolls around. And the naysayers will scream and howl.
It's the same old thing each year. Some Steelers fans just don't seem to understand how the team works.
The Steelers aren't going to dive into free agency again this year. They just can't afford to be major players in the opening days of the frenzy because, quite simply, there are too many other teams that can throw money around like drunken sailors.
Of course, those teams can do those things because they largely have, well, stunk for a long time. So the Jets have $92 million in cap space. And the Browns, despite their flurry of trades last Friday, have $77 million and change. The Colts? They have $73 million.
The list goes on and on all the way down to the Steelers, who are are releasing William Gay and Mike Mitchell to get themselves in compliance with a little wiggle room to spare. And even with those moves, Pittsburgh will only have $5 million or so in cap space without doing anything else.
Know what the teams that typically have a lot of cap space also have in common other than a losing record? They typically don't have a franchise quarterback, either.
While rebuilding the defense that helped the team get to the Super Bowl and win twice from 2005 through 2010, the Steelers bottomed out with consecutive 8-8 seasons. That's the worst they've been since 2003. Think about that for a minute.
"Yeah, but they have a franchise quarterback," some will say. "They're wasting Ben Roethlisberger's career," they'll cry.
OK. Know how many times Drew Brees has been in the postseason since winning his only Super Bowl appearance in 2009? Four. And he's got three playoff wins in that span, one fewer than the losing seasons he's had since then.
Philip Rivers is more of the same, except he has never been to a Super Bowl. Same goes for just about everyone else not named Tom Brady.
Part of the reason the Patriots have been able to be successful is because they haven't had to pay Brady huge money because his wife makes more money than him. And lest we forget, the Patriots went 11 seasons between winning their third Super Bowl with Brady and their fourth. It hasn't been all rainbows, cupcakes and confetti in New England, either.
Let's see how Russell Wilson does in Seattle this year now that Pete Carroll and company have started a complete rebuild around him, just a couple of seasons after signing him to big money.
Fact is, it's not easy to win without a franchise quarterback. But franchise quarterbacks cost money. And having one means you can't have big-name, high-priced players all over the rest of your team.
That doesn't mean the Steelers can't spend. It just means they have to be smart about whom they spend it on.
So, they'll wait until the smoke clears and they'll add a veteran inside linebacker, maybe even one of the players I laid out in this story about some potential replacements for Ryan Shazier. And, if they have enough money, they might even sign a veteran safety.
But it's unlikely they can do both. So they're exploring other options, such as moving Cameron Sutton to safety.
And then, they'll add players in the draft, just as they do every year. Yet some fans will continue to scream about it, failing to understand how the Steelers do business each year. And somehow seemingly forgetting the team has had one losing season since 2000. That's once in 18 seasons.
I get it. Winning like that raises the bar. But at the same time, what they do and how they do it seems to work pretty darn well every year.
Trust the process. Because when teams head off to training camp at the end of July, the Steelers will again be one of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl. That doesn't mean they'll get there. It's not easy. Only two teams get there each season.
But the Steelers will have as good a shot as anyone.
Having Roethlisberger gives the Steelers a chance to win each year. But his $23.2 million cap hit also makes it difficult for the team to pay everyone else.
• While you're gnashing your teeth over Le'Veon Bell's franchise tag deal, realize that his $14.5 salary cap hit this season is still only the 40th richest in the league. And not all of the guys ahead of him are quarterbacks. In fact, 20 of the players ahead of him who will be paid out more than Bell this season are not quarterbacks.
• The Steelers aren't going to rescind the franchise tag from Bell or try to trade him because they want him on their roster in 2018. Whether he remains beyond that depends largely on him and whether he's willing to lower his demands a bit.
• The Phillies just spent $75 million over three seasons for the ghost of Jake Arrieta, who went 14-10 with a 3.53 ERA at 31 in 2017. They must really be banking on Arrieta somehow finding that fountain of youth -- or whatever it was -- he was drinking from in 2015. Because Arrieta was, quite frankly, barely an above-average pitcher in 2017.
• Pittsburgh got a nice draw of teams for its NCAA Tournament games starting Thursday. Villanova, Duke and Rhode Island are all good teams. Alabama is a nice sleeper. And Oklahoma has one of the most exciting players in the country in Trae Young. Will it make for exciting basketball, or will it only remind the locals of the fact Pittsburgh didn't have much to offer in the way of college basketball this season?
• Neil Walker signed a one-year deal worth $4 million with the Yankees on Monday. It's a shame the Pirates couldn't have found a spot for him. Even though he hasn't played in more than 120 games in a season since leaving the Pirates, Walker would provide a nice bat wherever Clint Hurdle decided to use him. And the price wasn't Arrieta-like.