Grading Steelers mediocre free agent moves through 8 weeks

Here are the grades for the Steelers free-agent additions halfway through the year

Kevin Colbert has been known to hold dear to one philosophy when building a team: build through the draft. Considering he and the Steelers have appeared in three Super Bowls and won two of them along the way, this idea holds a lot of merits. As a team, you shouldn’t rely on a big addition in free agency. Instead, the proverbial “next man up” should be waiting in the wings to take over.

While this has worked in building a consistently competitive team, it has usually resulted in some less than stellar free agency moves. The Steelers tend to opt for cheap fixes and short-term solutions instead of signing the big names that every other team pursues. While this can land studs like James Farrior for cheap, it can also lead to injured and unproductive players that are cut a year after they sign.

Looking at this past offseason, the Steelers made the most out of the little that they had, signing three free agents as well as making a trade. This was all done despite the team having a small budget to cap restrictions. That said, these additions have yet to pay off in any substantial way, and as of now none of them are locks to see a second year with the team. While this has been mitigated by a stellar rookie class, it still doesn’t excuse the Steelers for adding such poor options during free agency.

With all of this said, here are the grades for the Steelers free agents’ half-way into the season.