The Pittsburgh Steelers are desperately interested in not repeating their 2012 season in 2013—one in which they ended the year with an 8-8 record and missed the playoffs. This means refining and re-tooling the roster so that it's comprised of the perfect combination of players to return them to the postseason.

This is no different than any other team in the NFL, though the circumstances under which the Steelers must operate to get there are unique. For the second straight season, they'll need to make roster fixes while also whittling down their salary cap figure, which projects to initially be around $14.2 million over the projected $120.9 million limit for 2013.

While this limits what the Steelers can do in free agency—whether that be re-signing their own players set to otherwise hit the open market, or picking up new veterans—it doesn't change the fact that some of their positional needs are better met by offering contracts to experienced players rather than filling those holes in the draft. 

Let's take a look at two of the Steelers' team needs for this offseason and figure out whether free agency or the draft is the better solution.

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The Cincinnati Bengals announced on Wednesday that they will be retaining the services of Hue Jackson on their coaching staff, according to FOX 19 in Cincinnati. In 2012, Jackson served as defensive backs and special teams assistant; in 2013, he will be head coach Marvin Lewis' special assistant as well as running backs coach.

Jackson, the one-time head coach of the Oakland Raiders, takes over the running backs coaching job vacated by Jim Anderson, who retired after 29 years with the team.

Baltimore Ravens

Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore Ravens backup quarterback Dennis Dixon may be headed to the Philadelphia Eagles, where his coach from college at Oregon, Chip Kelly, is the head coach.

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The Baltimore Ravens celebrated their Super Bowl victory on Tuesday with a parade through downtown Baltimore, reveling in the fact that they have won their second Lombardi trophy in franchise history. However, all the joy they are feeling now could be short-lived once the reality of the offseason starts to set in.

Salary cap issues and other roster concerns could mean that the Ravens look like a very different team once the season begins. And the predicted $20 million per year payday headed Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco's way has much to do with these potential changes.

Even if Flacco and the Ravens organization don't come to terms on a new deal in the coming weeks, the typical franchise tag won't be an option for him. Otherwise, teams can come calling on him and would be able to snap him up for a mere $14.6 million and a pair of first-round draft picks.

Instead, the only option for the Ravens would be to give him the exclusive tag, which would pay him the average of the five-highest quarterback salaries in 2013—a number projected to be around $20 million. Either way, Flacco is going to earn a big paycheck this season, which means the Ravens will need to do a bit of financial maneuvering to afford it.

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The Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl win may have opened old wounds for Cleveland Browns fans still stung by Art Modell moving the team to Baltimore, but Browns legend Jim Brown says it's time to get over it.

Speaking to Marc Sessler of NFL.com, Brown said, "Art did not make the correct move in my opinion, at the time. It hurt the people, but now it's time to get over it."

That may be hard to hear—even from the most beloved Browns player of all time—but it makes sense.

The Browns have been back in Cleveland and the NFL since 1999 and had ample time to put themselves into contention. Blaming Modell's stealing the team away to Baltimore for where the team stands today doesn't help the Browns move forward.

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Last week, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said that there will indeed be a competition for the team's starting quarterback job, pitting 2012's starter Brandon Weeden against an unknown person or persons who may or may not be added via free agency.

Also last week, comments made by San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Alex Smith drew the attention of the Cleveland media, after he praised current Browns offensive coordinator Norv Turner.

With the Niners about to shop Smith's services around the league, it seems like perhaps Smith would be a good fit in Cleveland to put the fight to Weeden.

However, there's a lot to consider—about the Browns, about Weeden, about Smith—before we can definitively say that Smith would be the perfect pickup for the Browns this offseason.

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It was fitting that the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday's Super Bowl on a four-down goal-line stand. Not because the Ravens' identity had been shaped over so many years by their superb defense, and not because legendary Ravens Ray Lewis and Ed Reed got to be in on the deciding sequence of events.

No, it was significant because it echoed one of the Ravens' season-long defensive strengths—their red zone defense.

This year, the Ravens defense ranked second in red zone scoring percentage, allowing touchdowns on just 42.86 percent of their opponents' appearances inside the 20-yard line. All the yards in the world allowed against them—and that totaled 468 for the Niners on Sunday—often were for naught, with opposing offenses struggling to get touchdowns for their efforts.

Let's take a closer look at the goal-line stand that clinched the Ravens their second franchise Lombardi Trophy and see what Baltimore did right, as well as what the Niners did wrong.

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Everyone knew that this Super Bowl, no matter the outcome, would be a turning point in Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco's career. With Flacco an impending free agent, the fact that he helped steer his team to the NFL's biggest stage means a big payday is ahead.

Flacco joked with the assembled media after the Ravens' win over the San Francisco 49ers that he's ready to "pound on the desk" of team owner Steve Bisciotti about his new contract, one that could approach the $100 million mark.

The other option is the franchise tag, worth $14.6 million in 2013, but the hope is that the Ravens and Flacco can come to an agreement on a contract instead, which would be more beneficial to Baltimore's strained salary cap.

Baltimore Ravens

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Based on their stellar playoff run, it appeared the Baltimore Ravens were destined to win the Super Bowl, and considering how they handled the San Francisco 49ers in the first half of Sunday's game, it looked to be an inevitability.

Though the second half proved to be a challenge for the Ravens, they never lost sight of their ultimate goal and managed to secure themselves their second Lombardi trophy in franchise history, defeating the 49ers, 34-31, in a twisting, turning game that required big plays on offense, defense and special teams to pull off the win.

The postseason-experienced Ravens started strongly, scoring on their opening drive on a 13-yard Joe-Flacco-to-Anquan-Boldin touchdown strike—something that has become all-too familiar in the past few weeks. Flacco handled pressure well, connecting with receivers and extending drives even when the Niners pass rush appeared to close in, and by the end of the first half he had thrown his way to a 21-6 lead over San Francisco.

At the same time, Baltimore's defense did a strong job of containing Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick when it came to him taking off, holding him to just 16 yards and two runs.

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