Will the Steelers be relevant in 2013?

As long as Ben Roethlisberger is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, healthy, and the team has any semblance of a defense, the Steelers should be at least mediocre. However, no one player can take a terrible team and turn them into a winner. The Steelers currently have a very good defense and a few play-makers on offense, though certainly not as many as was previously perceived. The Steelers, while relevant this year, are showing many cracks throughout their roster. Additionally, Roethlisberger has shown an inability to stay healthy. Does all of this point to the Steelers being on the down-swing and at the end of their Super Bowl window? Ultimately, that won’t be known for another five or ten years. And the answer is a complicated one even as a guess. Could the Steelers compete for the AFC’s top seed next year? That wouldn’t be a tremendous surprise. Could they be cellar dwellers, languishing near the bottom of the AFC? Again, it would be a surprise but it wouldn’t be a tremendous one. The answer lies mainly with Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin.