The dust has barely settled on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl victory against a tenacious Seattle Seahawks team, but head coach Bill Cowher and his squad won’t have much time to celebrate.  They will enter next season not just trying to win a Super Bowl, but defending their title with their name circled on a lot of teams’ schedules.  These are five early questions the Steelers have to address as they plan for free agency, the draft, and the loss of their underdog status.  

1. Will they sign Antwaan Randle El and Deshea Townsend?

Randle El is probably the priority of the two, but both are important.  Ike Taylor matured this year, but Townsend was the Steelers’ most reliable corner down the stretch.  The two corners who would take his place – Ricardo Colclough and Bryant McFadden, will have three years of experience between them at the start of next season.  And while both are big hitters and either could develop into a first-rate corner, they are still inconsistent at a position where the Steelers could use some stability.  Randle El, on the other hand, is an important cog in a developing offensive machine.  His option plays loosen up opposing defenses, and was the difference in Super Bowl XL.  If the Steelers can lock them both up, they’ll go a long way toward making themselves contenders again next year.   

2. What does Bill Cowher do for a follow-up?

Cowher trades one type of pressure for another next year trying to follow up a Super Bowl winning season.  He has been trying to shake his reputation as a coach who can’t win the big one for his whole career.  As the protégé of perennial punching bag Marty Schottenheimer, he has suffered many of the same criticisms.  He’s too conservative.  He gets outsmarted on game day.  He’s not disciplined enough.  Cowher won’t have that following him anymore, and deservedly so.  He took risks in the playoffs, coming out passing, going for it on key fourth and short plays.  And it paid off. 

Now, facing a season with a target on his back as a Super Bowl champion, what will define him?  Has he turned the corner?  Will this be viewed as an aberration, or can he follow this with another Super Bowl caliber season?  Offensive coordinator Ken Wisenhunt is probably leaving for Oakland, and Cowher will need to find a replacement with whom he can work as effectively.  Wisenhunt developed a deceptively balanced offensive, the team’s penchant for running with a lead notwithstanding.  And he also shared Cowher’s passion for gadget plays (Cowher has reportedly come in to practices with a book full of tricks he had to be talked out of by his coaching staff).  Finding that fit again will be Cowher’s next challenge.      

3. What does the backfield look like?

The Steelers dropped the Bus back home, so who fills his shoes?  Yes, he wasn’t a started this year, but he was money in the bank on short yardage, especially inside the ten.  There are three possibilities.  Willie Parker will most certainly be the starting back, but there are two guys already on the roster who might be the answer. Duce Staley will enter next season with fresh legs and a chance to step up and take some of the touchdown glory Jerome Bettis experienced the last two years.  But Verron Haynes is a great back, and he can move a pile.  It’s possible that Duce will wind up taking Haynes’ spot as the third down back, and Haynes will take Bettis’ role at the homerun hitter.  Noah Herron would have been a good name to have in this mix, but Green Bay picked him off the practice squad when their backs were dropping like flies.  The only other option is to draft a big back, which the Steelers will probably do in the later rounds anyway.

4. Who will play center?

Yes, Jeff Hartings is a Pro Bowler this year, but as he enters his eleventh season, it’s time to start planning for the future.  Chukky Okobi looks to be the answer there, and he’s been playing special teams and learning from the bench for five years.  He’s a mean S.O.B., and Steelers fans should be pleased if he can step up, but expect the Steelers to give him some competition through the draft.  

5. Who will back up Ben Roethlisberger?

This is probably an easy question – Charlie Batch.  But there will be an open roster spot as Tommy Maddox almost certainly played himself out of a job this year.  Roethlisberger’s story is that of a legend in the making, and he made great strides this year after a phenomenal rookie season.  But he was hurt a lot this year, taking a lot of big hits.  Just like any team in the league, the Steelers are always one tackle away from losing their biggest asset.  And if this year’s quarterback carousel (three different quarterbacks in three games) proves anything, it’s that the third spot on the depth chart can be very important.  Do the Steelers draft in the late rounds and find another body on the cheap, or do they look for another veteran?  They will probably do both for training camp competition.