Click here to submit your question

Q: I am anxious to have the Steelers front office get down to business of correcting some glaring missteps this season. In what timeframe have they acted in the past to clean out their under-performing coaches and players?

Mike Tranquillo, Wernersville, Pa.

BOUCHETTE: Coaching changes normally occur within a week or two of the end of the season, but sometimes they can go a little longer if there are extenuating circumstances, such as an assistant taking a job elsewhere or something else occurs. Players take longer. Expect to wait a few months before any movement there. For one, free agency does not start until March so those under contract remain exclusive bargaining property of the Steelers until then, as do other prospective free agents with other clubs. The draft, of course, does not occur until late April.

Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.