Are the Pittsburgh Steelers Really in Rebuilding Mode?

Sometimes circumstances befall an NFL team that makes it seem like things are headed for wholesale change, and that's just the situation the Pittsburgh Steelers appear to be in this year at first glance.

However, there's a difference between what the Steelers are in the midst of right now and a traditional NFL rebuild. Rebuilding is what the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns, to name two teams, have been working on for seasons now.

What the Steelers are doing could be more aptly described as a necessary evolution, a natural response to things that have happened both within the organization and around the NFL.

First, there's the cap situation, one the team knowingly brought upon itself when it spent money the way it did during the uncapped 2010 season. The Steelers approached the new league year around $30 million over the salary cap, which necessitated both roster cuts and contract restructures, or else they'd face a daily fine once the league year started.

The Steelers took the right approach to roster cuts, doing them quickly and with a clear understanding about how the NFL is a business, despite it also being so terribly personal for both players and fans.

Releasing defensive end Aaron Smith after his neck injury only for the veteran to retire is a smart decision. Cutting offensive guard Chris Kemoeatu was necessary for cap reasons and in order to remove an underperformer from the team's weakest area.

Obviously, the most difficult move for the Steelers was to release 14-year veteran wide receiver Hines Ward, who retired on Tuesday, but as he did not fit into the team's offensive plans nor their salary cap, it was a wise move in a business where a team cannot afford to be too caught up with sentiment.

The Steelers are a smart drafting team—one that's never all that active in free agency—so their current cap situation shouldn't prevent them from finding talented replacements for those players they cut. And even if they lose restricted free-agent receiver Mike Wallace to another team, they're still not up the proverbial river of sewage without proper navigational devices.

Clearly, the biggest change that the Steelers have undergone—the one that will reverberate through 2012 and beyond—is dismissing longtime offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and replacing him with Todd Haley, most recently the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

It's incredibly hard to predict what the Steelers offense will look like with Haley in control. As offensive coordinator with the Arizona Cardinals, he presided over one of the highest-octane passing games of the time, but with the Chiefs, he orchestrated a league-leading run game.

In his introductory press conference, Haley stressed that he is not a system coordinator, rather preferring to build an offense around a particular team's strengths.

This seems to indicate that the Steelers' recent focus on being a pass-heavy team will continue, but with Haley's track record with the run game, Pittsburgh could also return somewhat to being the hard-hitting running team they were once known as.

And don't worry about that running game without Rashard Mendenhall, whatever form it takes in 2012.

Though Mendenhall isn't likely to play at all in 2012—and could very well have played his last snap in black and gold—the team has enough depth on the roster, plus ample prospects in this year's draft, to have a successful ground game. It's more about the quality of their offensive line that will dictate their rushing acumen, not the backs they put on the field.

Yes, the Steelers have made a great number of changes since the end of the 2011 season, especially for an organization that's generally quite stable, but don't mistake it for a rebuild.

Rebuilding is for teams that were on the totally wrong path; for Pittsburgh, all the moves have been made to assure that they don't get off course and can remain one of the league's top teams for as far into the future as they can.

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