The Pittsburgh Steelers have a Booger on their official roster.  And Casey Hampton can’t be blamed for it.

Per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Steelers agreed to terms with defensive tackle Anthony “Booger” McFarland, a 1999 first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who was traded to the Colts in 2006 for a second-round pick and was cut by Indy earlier this year after failing a physical (which for some teams is code for “refused to take a pay cut so we’ll show him by attaching to his name the stigma of frailty”).

On the surface, the addition of McFarland makes sense because he was in Tampa while Steelers coach Mike Tomlin served as defensive backs coach there.  But the move makes us wonder whether Tomlin is plotting to begin the formal transition from the time-honored (in Pittsburgh) 3-4 defense to the 4-3, Tampa Two attack.

Tomlin wisely stuck with the 3-4 when he arrived last year, for strategic and political reasons.  Staying with the 3-4 allowed the Steelers to keep hugely popular defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, a 3-4 guru.  And it made very good football sense, since the defense had been built to accommodate that particular style.  (The Jets, in contrast, stubbornly refused to keep the 4-3 when Eric Mangini became the head coach, forcing them ultimately to trade linebacker Jonathan Vilma for an old comic book that once got wet and to try to deal defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson for a partially-consumed oversized lollipop).

Sooner or later, the Steelers under Tomlin will move to the 4-3.  Having McFarland around gives them an experienced interior lineman with nearly a decade in the system.