Trading for a player doesn’t mean that you have all of the information that you can possibly have on him. There is some risk involved in that unknown; it’s unavoidable. But you still pull the trigger when you think you know enough to be confident in paying the price that is required in order to bring that player into your system.
That’s where the Pittsburgh Steelers are with Joe Schobert, the former Pro Bowl inside linebacker whom they acquired this past week from the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick. The guy has been in a different defense pretty much every year of his career, so that’s not head coach Mike Tomlin’s focus when evaluating his value.