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b'Sadly, it\\u2019s the Steelers way: Stand back while your team hemorrhages talent to the highest bitter. The Steelers\\u2019 brain trust has long viewed NFL free agency as Bizarro World. Free-spending teams pony up insane prices for top players, only to see their collection of high-priced spare parts fail to perform as a winning team on the field. This knock on free agency was especially true when fat-pocketed football idiots like Daniel Snyder we\\u2019re bidding up prices. Slapped-together clubs like the Washington Football Team of old rarely fulfilled their free agency potential, seemingly proving more conservative clubs like the Steelers correct. But it\\u2019s not that way anymore. The NFL has changed. The Steelers have not. Last year, NFL eyebrows were raised when Tampa Bay inked Tom Brady as a Super Bowl savior. The so-called smart money was predicting a Tampa train wreck. Flash-forward a year, and the Bucs have their second Lombardi Trophy, and Brady is polishing his seventh Super Bowl ring -- perhaps the sweetest of all because it came after free agency lifted Brady from beneath Bill Belichick\\u2019s thumb. That\\u2019s the kind of championship-winning change free agency can deliver in today\\u2019s NFL. In panicked Pittsburgh, it\\u2019s still known as the time in mid-March when blood runs in the streets. There hasn\\u2019t been this much carnage during the ides of March since the days Julius Caesar came under his traitors\\u2019 knives. For the Steelers, it\\u2019s a blunter tool that\\u2019s carving them up \\u2013 the dollars, always the dollars. Steeler after ex-Steeler is following the money straight out of town. The exodus was long predicted. But it\\u2019s still tough to take. And there\\u2019s real reason to worry: The decimated Steelers are developing more holes than their salary-cap-strapped resources and even this year\\u2019s NFL draft can hope fill. When you suffer trauma, the first thing they do at the hospital is cut off all your clothes to assesses the damage under those harsh exam room lights. In this edition of the Steelers Update Podcast, we pronounce the Pittsburgh pigskin prognosis after all the free agency hemorrhaging suffered by your Steelers. Hint: It isn\\u2019t pretty. Neither is the way some Steelers\\u2019 fans are rationalizing their team\\u2019s massive talent loss. The tortured logic is all wet. Find out why in the podcast. And\\xa0be sure to check out my full print column every Thursday morning on PennLive.\\xa0I assemble all the best memes and tweets to really tell the story of this week\\u2019s football fracas in the Steel City -- a plethora of content exclusive to the column. Check them both out, Steelers fans!\\xa0 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'