Steelers Must Be Careful To Maintain Their Depth
A Majority Of Startes Are Locked Up, But Reserves Could Walk
By Jerry DiPaola

Many fans may consider free agency for the Steelers this year to be not unlike the dilemma of what do you give the team that has everything?

After all, this is a relatively young squad that is coming off a 13-3 season and an appearance in the AFC championship game, with 22 of its 24 starters signed through the end of the 2002 season. Indeed, nine of them are locked up through 2004 or beyond.

Still, the Steelers must be careful they don't take so many hits to their depth, or to their starting linebacking corps, that they can't recover.

The Steelers, in fact, don't have everything and need to fill some clear holes on their roster before they can take the next step and, actually, win one of those conference title games that always seem to wind up being played in Pittsburgh - four in the past eight years.

No team covets linebackers with more zeal than the Steelers, but three of their finest came out of the 2001 season without contracts (starters Jason Gildon and Earl Holmes and backup and special-teams ace John Fiala, who signed a three year contract last month).

While negotiations continued with Gildon's agent, Peter Schaffer, the Steelers opted to designate the star linebacker as their franchise player.

Gildon has led the Steelers in sacks for each of the past four seasons—the longest reign of any sack master in team history—and needs only four to surpass Hall of Fame tackle Joe Greene and move into second place on the team's all-time list.

Gildon brings his 62-1/2 career sacks back to the Steelers next season, but that still leaves the problem of re-signing or, perhaps, replacing inside linebacker Earl Holmes, who led the Steelers in tackles for the past three seasons.

Holmes doesn't have the speed of his counterpart on the inside, Kendrell Bell, and Holmes may end up as a two-down, run-stopper if he comes back to Pittsburgh for a seventh season. The Steelers want Bell on the field at all times next season, and will sacrifice some of Holmes' playing time to do that. Their contract talks with Holmes will reflect that thinking.

If they lose Holmes, the Steelers could have a starting job waiting for Fiala, whose only career start was in the title game against the Patriots when he recorded seven tackles. But Fiala was in the same position last year when the Steelers released Levon Kirkland. They ended up signing Mike Jones in free agency and drafting Bell. Both players pushed Fiala further down the bench.

There are four other backups without contracts and the Steelers will try to bring back each of them, but on the team's terms only.

Defensive backs Deshea Townsend and Jason Simmons play important roles, but Chad Scott and Dewayne Washington are the starting cornerbacks and are signed through 2006 and 2005, respectively. Townsend wants a chance to start, and could be ready for it. Simmons is strictly a special-teams player who could easily be replaced in the draft.

Safety Myron Bell played a key role last season, but he will be 31 this season and is due at least a $650,000 annual salary as a nine-year veteran.

Backup wide receiver Bobby Shaw is also unrestricted and is looking to sign a lucrative, long-term deal that will be an increase over the $510,000 base salary he earned in 2001.

Just as important as this year's unrestricted free agents are a collection of eight restricted free agents and five other starters whose contracts expire after the 2002 seasons.

Among the RFAs are outside linebacker Joey Porter, defensive lineman Aaron Smith, kicker Kris Brown and running back Amos Zereoue. The Steelers can match any offer that those players get from other teams or let them go and take a draft choice in return (third-rounders in the cases of Zereoue and Porter). The remaining RFAs are tight ends Jerame Tuman and Matt Cushing, long snapper Mike Schneck, also exposed in the expansion draft, and offensive lineman Oliver Ross.

Jerry DiPaola is a sports writer with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.