Pittsburgh has a large group of potential unrestricted free agents, including four in their offensive line, and they will try to sign some of them before Feb. 27.
"We haven't made any definitive offers or decisions on any of our guys at this point," said director of football operations Kevin Colbert said. "But it's safe to say that we will try to keep as many of our own guys as possible, fully understanding that it may not be possible and may have to go outside, either through free agency or obviously through the draft to replace some guys we potentially could lose."
High on their list are cornerback Bryant McFadden and their offensive tackles. Marvel Smith, Max Starks and Trai Essex all can be UFAs, while Willie Colon would be an RFA. Those are their top four tackles and they have no one with experience behind them. They'd like to sign two of those three UFA tackles.
Starting left guard Chris Kemoeatu also will be a UFA after one year as a starter, replacing Alan Faneca, who left as a UFA last year.
The offensive line did not perform well in 2008 but it also was a line in transition with two starters injured most of the season, Smith and right guard Kendall Simmons, a new center in Justin Hartwig, and two new guards in Kemoeatu and Simmons' replacement, Darnell Stapleton.
Simmons will return so Kemoeatu is not a must-sign.
"It's unusual to have that many guys be hitting the market at the same time," Colbert said. "If we could, we wouldn't have that many coming into free agency at the same time but circumstances just dictated that's where it ended up this time. You don't like to have that many guys at one position so that's a little unnerving but we should be able to work through it."
The Steelers ground game ranked 23rd in 2008, their second-lowest since they joined the AFC in 1970, and they had season-long troubles scoring near the goal-line. Ben Roethlisberger was sacked 46 times, second-most of any quarterback in the league.
Colbert excused the line for all of that because of injuries and Roethlisberger's style of play.
"That being said, we also have to try to continue to improve in that area," Colbert said. "I'm sure he doesn't like taking hits at the expense of making big plays that result in Super Bowl victories. But he is who he is, and it's our job to try to keep that talent around him and to keep improving it."
