When free agency opened the Pittsburgh Steelers moved quickly to resign current players Ramon Foster, Plaxico Burress, David Johnson, former players William Gay and Matt Spaeth, and outsider Bruce Gradkowski.

• But since making those early moves the franchise has shifted into low gear.

The cap strapped Steelers strategy at this point is to see what they can get in the coming NFL Draft and sign players afterwards, and that includes resigning some of their own players who remain on the open market. (Charlie Batch is one such player.)

However, by working out reserve safety Will Allen, the Dallas Cowboys put the Steelers on notice yesterday that not everyone the Steelers assumed would be available will be there.

The Steelers already lost an “we can probably get him back because we assume that no one else wants him” type free agent when Ryan Mundy signed with the New York Giants.

Will Allen was a similar type player, having played very little during his time in Pittsburgh, save for the 2012 season when he replaced the younger Mundy – to the defense’s benefit.

As the Dallas Morning News makes clear, the Cowboys couldn’t sign Allen now if they wanted to as the team is more cap strapped than the Steelers. But they wouldn’t bring him in for a workout if they were not interested.

Now, no serious Steelers commentator is going to write “Steelers Lose Will Allen. Super Bowl Window Now Shut.” But with that said, Allen is the only veteran safety with experience in Dick LeBeau’s system backing up Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark.

Dale Lolley, the only Pittsburgh journalist to report Allen’s visit, ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, has the Steelers picking safety Kenny Vacarro from Texas in the first round of the coming 2013 NFL Draft.

Regardless of whether it comes in the first round or later, the Steelers must get younger at safety in the coming NFL draft.

Thanks for visiting. Click here for the rest of Steel Curtain Rising or here to see our Steelers 2013 Free Agent Focus.