May 24, 2015 3 min read

The Steelers will begin their OTA workouts Tuesday on the South Side and all eyes will be on the defense, where Keith Butler takes over for longtime coordinator Dick LeBeau.

While the Steelers will still run the 3-4 as their base defense, what new wrinkles can Butler – who has been with the team for more than a decade – add to the equation?

Will the additions of second-round draft pick Senquez Golson and fourth-round selection Doran Grant at cornerback be enough to make a secondary that ranked 27th in the league in passing yards allowed last season at least respectable?

Can Cortez Allen bounce back from a disasterous 2014 campaign?

Is Shamarko Thomas ready to take over at strong safety, where Troy Polamalu lined up for the past 11 years?

Just how raw is first-round pick Bud Dupree at linebacker?

Is outside linebacker Jarvis Jones ready to show why the Steelers used a first-round pick on him in 2013?

And is free safety Mike Mitchell recovered from the torn groin muscles that limited him last season?

There are plenty of question marks, all on the defensive side of the ball.

Offensively, the Steelers should be ready to hit the ground running in 2015.

Defensively, however, the team will be a work in progress throughout the season.

• After their sweep of the Mets over the weekend, the Pirates now stand at 21-22 with the horrid Miami Marlins coming to town.

It would have been nice to get at least a split with Minnesota last week in a two-game series at PNC Park, but if the Pirates can take at least two out of three games against the Marlins, they’ll take a 5-3 homestand.

That also would put them at .500 heading into the final few days of May, which isn’t terrible.

Considering that stars Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison are starting to come around at the plate – only a fool would have thought they were both going to continue to bat less than .200 all season – the team isn’t in bad shape.

The Cardinals, despite a win Sunday, have cooled considerably since their hot start and aren’t looking to run away with the NL Central any longer.

The Pirates just need to stay within striking distance and, most importantly, stay healthy to have a shot.

The Major League Baseball season is more like a marathon than it is a sprint.

• Patriots fans will continue to complain about quarterback Tom Brady’s suspension for his role in the deflation of footballs for the AFC Championship for years to come. But the NFL got this one right.

Brady apologists continue to say there’s no hard evidence the quarterback told the guys responsible for preparation of the footballs to deflate them below 12.5 PSI.

But there’s a reason for that. Brady refused to turn over this cell phone to the NFL to view his texts to the two men in question.

If Brady had nothing to hide in that regard, he simply would have turned his phone over as part of the investigation. He did not.

This is no different than a pitcher doctoring a baseball or a batter corking a bat. An attempt was made to gain a competitive advantage.

And it’s not the first time the Patriots have been caught doing so.

New England fans can complain all they want. But the NFL got it right in this case.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.