The Steelers have been having their trademark silent free agency, and a few days into it they finally sign a few tiny names for depth/special teams. Arnaz Battle was signed from the 49ers to be a #5 WR, pretty much, and Will Allen was brought in from Tampa Bay as someone Tomlin is familiar with who will pretty much play special teams and be a backup DB. But that's not the big signing of the day for the Steelers. Ladies and gentlemen... and old friend.

• We don't really know how well he serves as a slot receiver anymore since any performance in Washington would have been diminished, but if he beats Mike Wallace for the third spot, we can probably expect a few gadget plays for good old El in 2010.
• Limas Sweed is almost toast.
• Realistically, El was brought in to return punts. It's what he did well as a Steeler the first time around, and it'll probably be what he does again. And thank goodness, because the Steelers still need help there.

Tell your mom to dust off her old Randle El jersey, because it's back in style.

UPDATE: Adam Schefter reports that Ryan Clark accepts a 4-year contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Schefter is usually right, so I'm going with him on this one. This is great news. Not only did the Steelers bring in a few small-time depth guys, but they have also managed to re-sign Jeff Reed, Casey Hampton, and Ryan Clark (Parker whatev). I'd say Kevin Colbert's 2010 free agency moves can be considered a success. With the draft yet to come, I think we should all feel pretty good about where the team is.

Here we go again...no clue what to even think about this at this point. My only thought is that is curious that "they" waited to break the story until the first day of free agency, when everybody's eyes are on the NFL. It's also important to remember that no charges have been filed at this point. Also, remember this is coming from TMZ.

TMZ:

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been accused of sexual assault by a young woman in Georgia, TMZ has learned.

The alleged incident occurred early this morning at Capital City -- a club in Milledgeville, Georgia.

The alleged victim, who has already been interviewed by police, has been treated and released.

We're told in addition to the alleged victim, witnesses are being interviewed -- and one law enforcement source says they will attempt to interview Roethlisberger.

In addition to the Milledgeville Police Dept, we've learned the Georgia Bureau of Investigations is also investigating.

Story developing ...

Free agency is here and the Steelers have been typically silent so far. Casey Hampton has been re-signed and Jeff Reed has been franchise tagged, but a handfull of other Steeler players are now on the open market. Jump it for a list of the UFAs and some analysis.

2009 was definitely a down year for the Steelers defensive backfield. Giving up 4th-quarter comebacks to opponents' hurry-up passing games, missing tackles like nobody's business, and certainly not intercepting passes. A lot of blame falls on the DBs for last season, but pessimism isn't the answer, so we'll highlight some of the bright spots too.

Good news. Casey Hampton, the anchor of so many great Steeler defenses, was signed to a three-year contract earlier this morning.

The deal is worth over $21 million over a three year stretch. Hampton, 33, played all nine seasons of his career with the Steelers.

Reaction: I'm never in favor of handing out lucrative deals to 33 year olds, but this was really the Steelers only option here. If they let Hampton walk, there would be nobody on the roster even capable of doing a Big Snack impression over the course of an entire season. If they franchise him, Hampton is pissed off for the season and probably leaves at the first chance he can get. I doubt the Steelers are able to groom a replacement over the course of just one season too.

The Steelers are certainly in "win now" mode and there aren't many nose tackles better than Hampton. Sooner or later, they'll have to draft and start grooming a replacement, but this move makes sense for the next couple seasons.

Over the offseason, I'll do my beast to break down the Steelers by position in terms of how they did in 2009 and how they're poised to do in 2010 and beyond. Today we'll take a look at the backbone of the Steelers' consistently dominant defense, the linebacking corps.

It wasn't nearly as exciting as last year's sixth ring for us Steeler fans, but last night's Super Bowl was still pretty entertaining to watch. It's hard for me to watch any Super Bowl game without thinking of what the Steelers can learn from the teams on the field. I'm sure almost all of the players, coaches, and front office personnel were watching and here are a few things that they should have made special note of before they went to bed last night.

Borrowing my favorite trend from The Pensblog again.

Manning = stunned.

Pitt cancelled classes for Monday due to MASSIVE SNOW so I'll see if I can put something up about the Steelers in between writing huge papers on artifical intelligence and writing thousands of lines of code.

Whatever, it's all good right now. And with the Superbowl concluded, we are now officially in offseason mode. Here We Go.

Well, I've taken a bit of a break from posting to sit back and enjoy the playoffs, and enjoy them I did. But the Superbowl is fast approaching and with all the Brees vs. Manning hype all over the place, it feels like the right time to talk about something other than a high-flying offense.

And what's farther from a high-flying offense than the 2009 Steelers defensive line? We've got a lot of time to kill between now and training camp, so one of the things we'll look at will be the Steelers team by position. We'll look at how well they did and how well they're poised to do in 2010. Jump.