What to make of the offseason reshuffling of the Steelers secondary? Polamalu, the Steelers' franchise defensive player, has voiced his discontent with the departure of Chris Hope. To replace Hope, Lebeau and Cowher have experimented with several combinations during mini-camp workouts. Tyrone Carter has been seeing lots of time at the Free Safety position, but most likely can not be counted on to fill the shoes of Hope. Anthony Smith, the Steelers second round draft choice out of Syracuse, should also see plenty of snaps this year. Between the two of them, the Steelers should be allright, but it's unreasonable to think Smith will be as much of an impact player as Polamalu was coming out of USC two years ago.
Let's not forget that the Steelers are only two years removed from having one of the more porous pass defenses in the entire NFL. Polamalu has obviously helped immensely since his rookie year, but by no means has this defensive backfield been built to sustain the kind of success they had last year.
It's going to be an interesting year defensively for Pittsburgh.