It’s tough to be a mid-level team in the NFL, but that’s where the Pittsburgh Steelers appear to be right now. There’s a lot of really good talent on the roster with a mix of up-and-coming youngsters and veterans who have been around the block.

But there’s also a talent shortage in some important spots and a salary cap that’s been tight for the past two offseasons.

Luckily for Pittsburgh, this team plays in the AFC North, where the Cincinnati Bengals are improving but unproven and where the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns also are going through transitional times.

So what happened in 2012 and what is in store for the Steelers of 2013? Neal Coolong, editor of Behind the Steel Curtain, tells us it’s too early to say where Pittsburgh falls in the hierarchy of the AFC this season. Here’s what he had to say.

Zoneblitz: Pittsburgh fell to 8-8 in 2012. Was this a one-season blip or are the Steelers entering a rebuilding phase?

Coolong: It’s so hard to gauge things year-to-year in the NFL. While it’s true you’re either getting better or getting worse, teams are so different from one year to the next. It is really hard to tell in March how much a team has improved or gotten worse.

In that sense, it’s almost like every season, good or bad, is a one-season blip. As far as 2013 potentially being a rebuilding phase, I’d say every team is always rebuilding to some extent. I don’t think the team would be as active as they have been in free agency if they felt they were “rebuilding,” but they clearly are targeting players who can play this year (Matt Spaeth, keeping Larry Foote and Ramon Foster).

My feeling is the Steelers’ offense is changing its philosophy, and you’re going to see them run the ball more than just about anyone else in the league, and they’ll do it with three runners, one of them yet to be determined.

Zoneblitz: The Steelers cut James Harrison and lost Keenan Lewis, Mike Wallace, Rashard Mendenhall and others to free agency. How will Pittsburgh fill those holes?

Coolong: I think there are three levels of players here. By the start of training camp, they expected to play without Wallace in 2013. By the end of the season, they knew Mendenhall wouldn’t be back. While I think Lewis is a decent player, after the final two games of the regular season, I think they’d have had some difficulty saying Lewis was clearly the starter at the position. So they let the market set Lewis’ price. Harrison is a guy they wanted to keep at a fairly high price, but he said no.

They expected to fill Wallace’s void simply by building a ball-control, run-oriented offense that depends largely on Ben Roethlisberger’s ability to get them out of long downs and extend drives. That seems to make sense – that’s why he’s getting paid what he is. Wallace became a luxury, not a necessity.

Mendenhall was easily the most athletic and most talented running back the Steelers had. For as tantalizing as the games of Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer have become over the last year, they still aren’t sold on the position. They were both tagged at $1.3 million for this year because neither of them is worth more than that. Neither has stepped ahead of the other.

Look for a zone runner to be taken in this draft.

As trite as it is to simply suggest “next man up” at outside linebacker, the Steelers have spent more at the position with the two projected starters (LaMarr Woodley and Jason Worilds were both second round picks, meaning they will start the highest drafted players at the position) in their franchise’s history. If anything, this year more than any other would suggest it was time to let Harrison go.

The fact it was a hard decision and not one they made without a somewhat reduced offer is concerning.

Is it too cheesy to write “the weight of the Worilds is on his shoulders”? Wait, I already did. Ugh.

Zoneblitz: With Wallace and Mendenhall gone and nobody left from the collection of running backs from last year standing out, what does the offensive skill talent that will surround Ben Roethlisberger look like heading into 2013?

Coolong: I’m not entirely sure how many other times it has happened in team history, but their offensive line is more athletic than their skill position players are. That’s what the team is banking on, and I think that was part of something of a three-year plan with offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

This team is going to focus heavily in a zone running game this season. The presence of Maurkice Pouncey and David DeCastro give the Steelers two of the most athletic interior offensive linemen in the game. Mike Adams is a raw but phenomenally athletic tackle who will be able to play on either the right or left side. I don’t think this team is done shopping in free agency either. New England’s Sebastian Vollmer would be an outstanding complement – and proof positive the stretch zone run will be a staple of the Steelers’ offense in 2013. Not saying he will or won’t be signed, but he’s a good fit, if they can come to agreement on a price.

I don’t think Marcus Gilbert’s ego is handling the addition of Adams, nor his perception that he belongs on the left side. I don’t think Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert or coach Mike Tomlin are remotely even close to being in the mood to put up with that nonsense from a player who tore more teammates’ ACLs in 2013 than he started games. If they can improve at the other tackle position, I feel they will.

Oh, and Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders are the only two entities even coming close to resembling playmakers at the skill positions. Sanders may still sign elsewhere and the Steelers won’t match an offer for him.

Zoneblitz: There is going to be some turnover on the offensive line this season. How do you think that unit is shaping up?

Coolong: Beyond the diatribe I just went on, I think it’s going to be exactly what the team drafted it to be: young and athletic. I remember Colbert saying a few years back the team won’t ever have an offensive line of five first round picks. Let’s just say, hypothetically, Vollmer signs, and he takes the right tackle position as Adams moves to the left side. That’s an offensive line of three first round picks (Vollmer, Pouncey and DeCastro) a second round pick (Adams) and Ramon Foster. The four highly selected players all were taken where they were because of their athletic ability.

If a team wants to excel in a zone running scheme, you need athletic linemen.

We highlighted a Steelers zone run “attempt” against the Jets in 2012, one in which the athletic limitations of Max Starks and Marcus Gilbert were on display.

To be fair, Jets defensive lineman Mohammad Wilkerson improved tremendously with each game and is now one of the best defensive linemen in the league. He absolutely tore Starks up on this play and in this game. The Steelers tried to run zone early in the year, but couldn’t get enough out of their tackles until Adams was playing regularly. Even then, Starks was a liability in space.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a move made to challenge Gilbert for a starting spot. He’s an upgrade over Starks athletically, but he doesn’t move the best in space either.

As far as pass pro goes, they’ll just try to run 40 times a game. That should protect Roethlisberger from oncoming pass rushers. And himself.

Zoneblitz: The Steelers’ defense has a reputation for being older, but I was reading on your site that it has one of the highest collections of young starters in the league. How is this unit looking going forward?

Coolong: It was a mix of old and young, but no one focused on the young. They’ll have to this coming season.

If we were to break it down now, you’re looking at a defensive line starting Brett Keisel, 35;  Ziggy Hood, 26 and Steve McLendon, 27. Linebackers are LaMarr Woodley, 28; Jason Worilds, 25; Lawrence Timmons, 26 and Larry Foote, 32. Maybe there is a more accurate argument for aging in the secondary, but Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark, when healthy (and not playing in Denver) are still an outstanding safety combination.

Cortez Allen forced five turnovers in the team’s last two games. Five. And he’s 24. He’s also the reason they didn’t overpay for Lewis, who is not the best tackler on earth and who has created one turnover in his career.

The emphasis has to be on turnovers, sacks and splash plays this season. The team simply hasn’t made any of those plays the last two seasons, and it’s put too much pressure on an offense that no longer has the game-changers it has in the past.

Tough to say right now we’ll see an increase in turnovers – I gave up writing about the law of averages and how trends will eventually reverse, but Allen and the hope of a healthy Polamalu certainly makes things interesting.

Zoneblitz: How long before the team’s stressed salary cap is in order?

Coolong: The good news is the team doesn’t get anything for being below the salary cap. The fact they have to put dead money on the cap isn’t the best thing on earth, but what makes me laugh is the “world is coming to an end” mentality and holier-than-thou national media hacks who somehow feel this team is unaware of their cap situation.

You want to know why the Steelers are pushing money into future years? Because they don’t sign free agents very often anyway. You want to know why they’re dipping into that market a bit more now (for players with low price tags)? Because they have drafted like jackholes, that’s why. Their entire 2008 class is gone. Most of their 2009 class is gone. Who do they have to give long term extensions to that they won’t be able to next year? No one. They can spend to the cap and absorb dead money on a guy like Willie Colon, who, in fact, is the only player given an extension in the Steelers’ glory run who didn’t live up to it. They swung and missed on one guy in a run of excellence that saw two Super Bowl championships, two Defensive Players of the Year, two different 1,000 yard running backs and scores of Pro Bowls. Not too shabby.

Now, they’re clearing out a few bad drafts, preparing to take a few compensatory picks next year, and planning to build on what they have. Could be a lot worse.

Zoneblitz: Who on the roster do you see having a breakout season in 2013?

Coolong: Cortez Allen. Did you know that kid didn’t play football until his junior year of high school and he was All-State in Florida? He went to The Citadel and became a fourth round draft pick. He’s one of the few players in the NFL who have been driving longer than playing competitive football, and he continues to get better each year.

He is an outstanding football player and very easily has the ability to be the best cornerback this team has seen in many years.

Zoneblitz: The Ravens have suffered a lot of losses from their Super Bowl team. Cincinnati is young and improving but unproven. The Browns have some talent but haven’t won yet. Where do the Steelers fit in the AFC North hierarchy right now and how far are they from being a playoff contender?

Coolong: This is going to be a very interesting year in the AFC North. I don’t think Baltimore lost as much as it seems; Paul Kruger wasn’t anything significant until he was in for a contract, and I don’t understand why no one else seems to notice his emergence was coincidentally happening right at the same time Haloti Ngata got healthy for the first time in two years. Dannell Ellerbe isn’t any better of a player than Larry Foote is, I am really struggling to see how he’s not replaceable with any one of the 35 draft picks the Ravens now have.

I’d watch out for Cleveland. Always fear a team with a defense that wants to fight and a new coach that doesn’t care about the reputation a team used to have. They have some good pieces there and some very high draft picks in which to get better.

I’m not sold on Andy Dalton, and he’ll quickly (and fairly) become the “reason why a good team doesn’t win” champion of the NFL, replacing Joe Flacco. That team won’t win any more than it has with Dalton under center. Don’t believe me? Two games against Houston in two years, Dalton folded like a lawn chair in both of them.

I don’t care how good A.J. Green is, if you don’t have a quarterbacks who resembles more than a jayvee passer in the playoffs, you will not win.

As for the Steelers … hmmm … I dunno. Gotta be honest, on paper, I’m not sure how they’re any better, but I think they make a run at 9-7 (in a weak division, which could be enough to win it) because of things we don’t know right now. I think, again, they’ll be able to run far more effectively than they have, and when you have a good quarterback leading a team that can run outside like that, the play-action will absolutely shred any secondary. That’s a nice weapon to have.

Zoneblitz: What would you like to see the Steelers do in free agency and the draft?

Coolong: To be blunt, I’d really like to see them draft some players who aren’t arrested more times than they’re activated for games, find a few playmakers in an actual sense, not a slot receiver who can catch a ball but not make anyone miss, a smart, balanced running back with outstanding vision above everything else, a pass rusher who doesn’t need three years of practice to be able to get to the quarterback, a safety who can hit and cover a slot receiver and a guy who cannot get injured. Ever. I don’t care what position he plays.

Zoneblitz: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Coolong: Yes, there is. The Doritos Locos tacos are the most overrated food on earth. Was there a bigger letdown than the first time you had one, realizing immediately the shell wasn’t Dorito, but rather, that cheap, store brand knockoff parents always bought because it’s 60 cents cheaper and they felt really isn’t any different than Doritos? Seriously, those things are the Limas Sweed of food.

Follow Neal Coolong on Twitter at: @NealCoolong
Follow Behind the Steel Curtain on Twitter at: @btsteelcurtain
Follow Zoneblitz.com on Twitter at: @ZoneblitzCom

Previous In Depth: St. Louis Rams
Next In Depth: Dallas Cowboys