Rest easy, Steeler Nation. Andre Frazier has re-signed with our beloved Black and Gold. Not only do we get his special teams expertise for another year but we also managed to save some space under the salary cap through a shrewd bit of maneuvering by Player Personnel Director Kevin Colbert. Instead of tendering him an offer which would pay him $927,000, the Pittsburgh Steelers cleverly allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent, allowing them to then sign him at a lower salary. These sort of ingenious maneuvers are why we’ve been such a successful franchise the past 15 years. Suck it, Oakland.

Of course, I’m being a smartass. Andre Frazier is a minor blip on the radar and other than running down the field on kickoffs and punts, his greatest contribution to the Steelers next year will be keeping a seat on the bench warm for important players like punter Daniel Sepulveda.

But I’m okay with that. You know why? A boring free agency season means one thing: your team is pretty damn good. Look at the Patriots. Or the Colts. Or even the Chargers. How many free agents have they signed? How many have they lost? Do they even care?

Facts are, the teams who sign the most free agents are usually teams in dire need of improvement. This year, there have been a lot of moves by the Jets, Bears, and Eagles. Well, there should be, they weren’t good last year. They should be bringing in new players to try and turn things around. The Catch-22, though, is that no team has ever successfully rebuilt through free agency. Sure, if you’re thisclose to contending, an off-season pick-up can put you over the top. T.O. going to Philly or Randy Moss being sent to New England comes to mind. But overhauling your team with free agents is like trying to redecorate your house with stuff you find at a garage sale. The quality is just not there and you end up paying ridiculous sums for #3 recievers or washed up linebackers. Ask Danny Snyder.

The curse of being a Steeler fan is your team is well-run enough that most off-seasons are blessedly dull. The Pittsburgh strategy is very clear. First, we sign our core players before they even sniff the open market. Ben Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Troy Polamalu, and Aaron Smith were all locked up well in advance of free agency, keeping the nucleus of the team intact. The players who we don’t deem irreplaceable, or who have reached the point of becoming high priced veterans, are let go and replaced with younger prospects. We cut LB Joey Porter last season and James Harrison stepped in without missing a beat. Clark Haggans is a free agent this year and we haven’t even made a half-hearted attempt at keeping him because we have two young players, Lawrence Timmons and Lamarr Woodley (who looked great in limited playing time as a rookie), ready to take the field. Yes, losing G Alan Faneca hurts. However, if history is any guide, the Steelers will address this in the draft, ending up with a player of comparable ability at half the price.

And when the Steelers do tip toe into the free agent pool, we always go for the Giant Eagle double coupon super-saver specials, orphaned players saved from dire conditions on lousy teams by Dan “Daddy Warbucks” Rooney. Even there we’ve done very well. Never forget that C Jeff Hartings, whose retirement last year almost single-handedly lead to the collapse of our line, was originally signed away from the lowly Detroit Lions. So when I read the Steelers are talking with Atlanta S Chris Crocker or Miami G Rex Hadnot, I’m optimistic about finding another diamond in the rough and not another Sean Mahan.

We’ve already signed one free agent this off-season, former Vikings RB Mewelde Moore. I think Moore could prove to be a very important player for us next season. He’s already the odds on favorite to be our new return man, replacing the gone and happily forgotten Allen Rossum. He’ll also likely be our new third down back, assuming a role similar to the one Verron Haynes used to fill as an outlet receiver in the flat. Haynes was a major part of the 15-1 (2004) and Super Bowl (2005) teams as he kept many drives alive by converting third downs via dump-offs from Big Ben. Since his devastating and apparently career-ending knee injury two seasons ago, we have missed that kind of weapon on offense.

Moore may very well turn into yet another in a string of nice acquisitions at a bargain basement price. Considering the Steelers recent history with free agency, I wouldn’t bet against it.

Once in awhile you come across something which makes you scratch your head in utter confusion. The ending of “No Country For Old Men.” That’s going to win the Oscar this year, write it down. All of Pearl Jam’s albums after Vs. Pretty much every episode of “Lost.”

Add to that list the first off-season moves by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Let’s start with the ones which do make sense. Pittsburgh released tight end Jerame Tuman, linebacker Clint Kriewaldt, and kick returner Allen Rossum this week. No surprises there.

Kriewaldt and Rossum were special teams specialists. Considering we couldn’t cover anybody on kick offs, Kriewaldt clearly wasn’t very good at it. We actually gave up a conditional draft pick for Rossum which means if he costs us anything more than a 7th rounder, we overpaid for his services. In this era of the electrifying return man, the Steelers haven’t had a decent KR since Antwaan Randle El left town. Santonio Holmes was supposed to be the answer but he fumbled the job away. Rossum’s clever tactic of signaling for fair catches when nobody was within ten yards, then letting the ball bounce behind him to make sure we started even deeper in our own territory clearly didn’t impress coach Mike Tomlin enough to keep him around. Tuman, a long-time Steeler, has served as a very capable backup since 1999. Unfortunately, Steelers Player Personnel Director Kevin Colbert struck gold with Matt Spaeth in last year’s draft thus making him expendable.

Now comes the part where the head scratching comes in. The Steelers also placed the Transitional player tag on offensive tackle Max Starks. First of all, I’m sure some of you are wondering what the hell a Transitional tag is. Evidently, it’s a weaker version of the Franchise tag. A Franchised player must be paid the average of the top 5 salaries at his position and if another team offers him a deal which his current team doesn’t match, that team must surrender two #1 draft picks as compensation. With a Transitional tag, the player is paid the average of the top 10 salaries at his position while if another team offers him a deal and it isn’t matched, no draft picks are exchanged.

Why did I go into this long-winded explanation of NFL Capology? Because the Transitional tag means we have to pay Max Starks at least $6.9 million next year. The Steelers have another free agent on the offensive line, a fellow by the name of Alan Faneca. Faneca is a 7 time Pro Bowler, 5 time All Pro, and generally considered one of the best guards in all of football. Let’s say the Steelers decided to bring out the heavy artillery and slapped the Franchise tag on Faneca. Know how much that’d cost? $7.5 million. See my problem? For about HALF A MILLION BUCKS, chump change to an NFL franchise, we could’ve kept the best guard in the league. Instead, we’re protecting Max Starks? Why? Somebody explain how this makes sense.

Furthermore, this new found man crush on Max Starks is a little perplexing considering Max WASN’T EVEN A STARTER going into this season. My Uncle Joe told me way back during Christmas that the Steelers would overpay to keep Starks because they don’t want to look cheap in losing Faneca. He must be the Polish Nostradamus because that’s exactly what has happened.

I don’t mind keeping Starks but agreeing to pay him the average of the top ten players at his position? Something doesn’t add up there. If he’s one of the ten best offensive linemen in the league, um, why wasn’t he always a starter? He did play well when he finally got a chance but if Willie Colon could beat him out, I’m not sure he’s worth $6.9 million. This isn’t like being asked to choose between Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson, it’s pretty easy to see if you have an Alan Faneca out there, you pick him first and take care of Max second.

The other thing is not starting Starks all season seems to be yet another one of Mike Tomlin’s highly questionable personnel decisions. Carey Davis winning the fullback job over Dan Kreider added nothing to the team, human traffic cone Sean Mahan got the center job over Chukky Okobi which makes me wonder if Chukky could’ve possibly been worse, and I’ve already talked about how useless Rossum was. Part of the greatness of Bill Cowher was he knew how to evaluate his players. He knew which situations played to their strengths and which played to their weaknesses and did his best to put them in position to succeed.

I’m beginning to wonder if Mike Tomlin has this same ability.