THE 50-YARD LINE

Now that the kickoff to free agency is under way, Mrs. Black-N-Gold looks at the recent changes made by your Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers continue to try to get younger yet they restructured the contracts of many veterans: CB Ike Taylor, WR Antonio Brown, TE Heath Miller, and S Troy Polamalu. Many fans were actually pleased by this as it looks like Miller, Polamalu and Taylor will end their careers in the black-n-gold. Someone who will not retire a Steeler is LB LaMarr Woodley. It became apparent that Woodley was expendable and that the Steelers were going to bite the salary-cap-bullet with him when LB  Jason Worilds accepted the transition tag offer of 1 year for $9.754 million, last week. The restructured deals helped the Steelers get under the cap before the free agency period began.  On the first day of free agency the Steelers did something they failed to do most of last season, they made a splash. They signed former Carolina S Mike Mitchell to a 5 year $25 million contract. Mitchell was originally drafted in 2009 in the 2nd round by the Oakland Raiders out of Ohio University. Playing on a 1 year contract in Carolina, Mitchell enjoyed a career year starting 14 games with 74 tackles, 4 interceptions, 3.5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles. Mitchell is young, turning 27 in June. He could also be considered immature as he accumulated over $45,000 in fines this past season. He'll need to curb those penalizing tendencies. He'll also need to work on his tackling technique as he led all safeties last season with 18 missed tackles. Now the question is, "Will the Steelers try to retain any of their own"?  They will let S Ryan Clark go, for obvious reasons. They are also expected to allow WR Emmanuel Sanders and DE Brett Keisel to walk. They may try to retain DL Ziggy Hood and/or Al Woods. Although neither has set the world on fire during their careers, if they can be had at the right price, they may keep them for depth. They may also try to keep either Jonathan Dwyer or LaRod Stephens-Howling to help out in the backfield. They may also attempt to retain at least one of their free agent offensive linemen.  And, as of last night, they were trying to get a deal done with WR Jerrricho Cotchery. The Mitchell signing fills a big need but it won't fix everything. It may be the biggest move the Steelers make in free agency but they'll need to make some smart moves come draft time, too. This is one small step on the road back to the Super Bowl. Let's Go Steelers!!!!!!