Inactivity Early in Free Agency Par for the Course for Cap-Strapped Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers have, to date, made few free-agency moves. They re-signed a pair of their own free agents, outside linebacker Arthur Moats and blocking tight end Matt Spaeth. They tendered offers to a trio of restricted free agents, fullback Will Johnson, safety Robert Golden and cornerback Antwon Blake. 

Other than that? Crickets.

And that's not something to be alarmed about. 

The Steelers are traditionally very quiet during free agency, particularly its expensive, early days. It's not just for salary-cap reasons—though those issues exist as well, with the Steelers currently around $7 million under the $143 million cap, and have persisted for years. It's because the Steelers prefer to build their roster via the draft. Free agents are just a supplemental part of the whole picture.

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Last year was an outlier for the Steelers, who committed over $35 million in contract value by signing seven free agents, the most notable being free safety Mike Mitchell, who signed a five-year, $25 million deal and became the team's starter immediately. They won't be doing the same kind of spending this year, even with clear needs at safety (pending Troy Polamalu's status), outside linebacker and cornerback, particularly.

In fact, the Steelers haven't been big free-agent players in the 15 years Kevin Colbert has served as general manager. As the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Mark Kaboly pointed out last month, the Steelers have signed only seven free agents in that time frame who have started for the team for multiple years, including Mitchell, James Farrior and Ryan Clark.

Though the draft has born some strange fruit for the Steelers in recent years—they have none of their 2009 picks still on the roster and have retained around half of the players they've drafted in the years after—Pittsburgh is still not interested in changing its strategy. 

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Championship seasons—or even just winning ones—do not result from big-money spending on veterans. It's not a byproduct of being cheap. Even if the Steelers had been in a more cash-flush financial situation over the past few years, that doesn't mean they would be willing to spend it every year on a half-dozen big-name veterans. 

Granted, the Steelers' lingering cap issues have forced them to be even more selective with their spending. But they would be selective spenders regardless—they haven't been in bad financial straits for the entirety of Colbert's tenure as general manager, but, yet, there have been few signings this time of year.

Free agency is about the spending of money—the smart spending of money, ideally. Luckily for the Steelers, they haven't had enough money to get stupid with it, leaving us to assume that if they had the cash, they wouldn't. 

That's not to say that the Steelers won't be adding any veterans to the roster. Former Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams is visiting the team on Friday, according to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ed Bouchette, and very well could sign. The Steelers do need a veteran running back to pair up with Le'Veon Bell, and if it's not Williams, it will be someone else.

And cornerback isn't off the table either, as Colbert noted to Kaboly in February: [Cornerback] would be a position where, sure, you're looking for help. Is there one that's available and signable?"

Colbert went on to say that he'd like a younger, cheaper cornerback via free agency, rather than one of the bigger names (all of whom, it should be noted, received bank-breaking deals on Day 1): "I kind of like that type of depth... [A]n experienced, young depth, as opposed to the rookie that has to be thrown in."

Expect the Steelers to make signings along those lines as the weeks unfold and contract negotiations become more reasonable. But don't wish for excessive spending this time of year because it's just not going to happen.

The Steelers are a team-building, championship-building organization, which means developing young players. At least for the foreseeable future, Pittsburgh won't be in the desperate, win-now business of the teams that spend big in free agency.