As is the case with with most sports, football players often hit the market and sign with new teams at the end of their contracts. While the Steelers have been able to keep some of their best players for their entire careers, they can’t stop everyone from leaving.
A little thing called the salary cap forces teams to pick and choose how to spend their money. Because players often choose to leave a team in pursue of a bigger pay check, this can end up leaving an organization a bit short-handed.
This is exactly what happened to the Steelers this offsesaon.