Tampa, Fla. - Their quarterback turns 27 next month and is only the second one in history to claim two Super Bowl championships by that age. Their coach is 36, the youngest ever to win a Super Bowl.
OK, their defensive coordinator is 71. But he feels half that age and wants to come back for more.
Yes, Browns fans, the Pittsburgh Steelers should be a formidable foe for a while.
The Steelers won their second NFL championship in four seasons, 27-23, over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night.
And coach Mike Tomlin is already conditioning his team for what lies ahead.
"You won't hear me say words like repeat or defending because it will be brand new," Tomlin said Monday. "This group will always be special to me, but sometime soon, that group will assume its place with others in history. It will be just that - history."
They are history and historic. Pittsburgh's sixth Super Bowl win puts the Steelers in a class by themselves.
And they are well-positioned to add a seventh ring - one for the other forefinger? - a year from now in Miami. They don't face all the challenges that typically confront Super Bowl winners in the Not For Long era of free agency with a salary cap.
Their contract issues are relatively minor.
Five of their top six linemen can be free agents. Tackles Marvel Smith and Max Starks, guard Chris Kemoeatu and swingman Trai Essex are unrestricted; tackle Willie Colon is restricted.
Offensive line is a weakness the team intended to address, anyway, so the Steelers might not be too thrilled about bringing back all of them. They are the best at letting players go a year too soon rather than a year too late.
The defensive line has three starters and the top backup all over the age of 30.
If anything, the Steelers can identify their off-season priorities fairly easily - both sides of the line of scrimmage.
"We're a month behind everyone else," Tomlin said. "Our attention has to be focused on quality, not quantity."
The Steelers may lose one defensive starter, inside linebacker Larry Foote, who talked during Super Bowl week of leaving for his hometown team in Detroit rather than accept an expected pay cut. His replacement is on hand, Lawrence Timmons, a first-round pick in 2007.
Their only playmaker needing a contract adjustment is linebacker James Harrison, who authored what is being dubbed the Immaculate Interception in Pittsburgh. The NFL defensive player of the year was in line for a big raise before turning in a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown - the longest play ever in a Super Bowl.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Super Bowl MVP receiver Santonio Holmes and safety Troy Polamalu are all under contract.
And the team should expect built-in reinforcements from their top three rookie draft picks in 2008 who did not play much their first season - running back Rashard Mendenhall (broken shoulder), receiver Limas Sweed and rush linebacker Bruce Davis.
Another thing the Steelers don't have to worry about is turnover on their coaching staff. The typical Super Bowl champion usually loses a coordinator or two. For some reason, nobody raids the Steelers' staff. It feeds their standards of stability and consistency.
Considering the staff and player turnover suffered by AFC elite teams New England and Indianapolis, it's reasonable to project the Steelers as the early favorites to repeat. The Patriots were the last NFL team to win back-to-back titles following the 2003 and '04 seasons.
"The thing I'm going to sell to our Football team is that we are not attempting to repeat," Tomlin said. "There will be a new 53-man [roster]. A lot of the faces will be the same, but nothing stays the same in this game. A few will come and go. Those who remain, the roles will change. Some will ascend, some will descend. That's the nature of today's NFL.
"I think repeating and defending Super Bowl champions in today's NFL is somewhat of a misnomer. When I walk down the hallway and look at the championships of the Steelers from the '70s, it's the same pictures and same positions in those photos. That's not the reality of today's NFL."
But to the Browns, reality is knowing the Steelers remain quite a steep mountain to climb.
When a reporter identified himself before posing a question at the traditional morning-after news conference on Monday, Tomlin chuckled.
"You from Cleveland? . . . He-he-he," he said.
Yeah, we know.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tgrossi@plaind.com, 216-999-4670
