Steelers Biggest Questions Heading Into The Offseason

The Secondary

Nov 30, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu (43) looks on from the sidelines against the New Orleans Saints during the third quarter at Heinz Field. The Saints won 35-32. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Gee, it’s not even a single corner position or one troublesome player.  It’s the whole bloody secondary that is a huge problem for the Steelers.

Troy Polamalu will more than likely hang up the cleats within the next couple of months.  He says it’s too early and not even on his mind, but I bet he was thinking it a few times when looking up at the scoreboard at Heinz Field on Sunday.

The same goes for long time veteran Ike Taylor.  Even if he were healthy and put in the offseason work, there’s no guarantee that he would be any good.  In fact, the real guarantee with him is that you have a team that will be paying way too much for a player who deserves to be #3 on the depth chart.

Speaking of overpaid and underperforming…  The worst free agency singing, Mike Mitchell, should be gone by March.  If not, the Steelers are either desperate or Colbert/Tomlin have no clue what they are doing.  The guys was awful, arrogant, moronic, and was a liability on and off the field.

Cortez Allen is the worst contract extension for the Steelers in quite some time.  Benched since Week 9 and then placed on IR for the remainder of the season, ‘Tez’s level of suck add yet another hole in this secondary.  William Gay isn’t not a shutdown starting corner, and is serviceable when working on a team’s #2 receiver.

That all said, the Steelers have their work cut out for them.  Shmarko Thomas has played very few snaps at strong safety, and the Steelers will probably keep Will Allen to help that position out.  The team will either be shopping for a corner (maybe two) and another free safety to take Mitchell’s spot.  They’ll need to collect numerous secondary specialists from the draft.

Not a great place to be in when you only realistically get three to four solid picks out of the draft, and maybe one of them is ready to start on Week 1 if they are a Round 1 or 2 pick.  This part of the defense will be a continued problem for the Steelers for the next several years.  Hopefully they can make a solid improvement in a least one of these positions in 2015.

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