Domestic or imported? NFL teams develop different tastes

Compared to other NFL teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers are homebodies. They keep to themselves, don’t venture outside their comfort zone, are resistant to change and suspicious of strangers.

They also have a record six Lombardi Trophies.

That’s all the justification the Steelers need for rebuilding their team through the draft rather than plunging checkbook-first into free agency and signing a fistful of big-name players to one-year contracts.

“The Rooney family has always believed in draft well, develop your own, keep your own,” said Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert, whose biggest off-season signings were extending the contracts of linebackers LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons, and cornerback Ike Taylor. “You’re going to have to supplement them here and there, but that’s just the philosophy that they have.”

At the other end of Pennsylvania — and of the philosophical spectrum — are the Philadelphia Eagles, suddenly the Ellis Island of pro football talent. Those players aren’t tired, and they certainly aren’t poor, but they form some impressive huddled masses, all in search of that elusive championship ring.

The Eagles signed Pro Bowl players from all over the NFL map, collecting cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha (Raiders), defensive linemen Cullen Jenkins (Packers) and Jason Babin (Titans), running back Ronnie Brown (Dolphins), receiver Steve Smith (Giants), and quarterback Vince Young (Titans). They also added a third Pro Bowl corner to their roster, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, in a trade with the Cardinals.

“You’ve got a lot of players who want to win a Super Bowl,” Eagles President Joe Banner said. “They view this as a place they have a real chance to do that.”

Historically, the Eagles have spent more energy developing their own talent than signing free agents. They looked at this year as unique, however, because of the lockout, and the compressed off-season and free-agency period. They developed a strategy and basically ran a two-minute offense when they finally got the chance to load up on talent.

What’s more, they looked at the way Green Bay operated last season, and how the Packers won the Super Bowl despite having 15 players on injured reserve. A lot of that had to do with the depth Green Bay established at various positions. Many of the Eagles’ moves were depth-related, as Young and Brown are backups and Rodgers-Cromartie is the third corner.

Question is, will those players form a just-add-water Super Bowl team — the kind San Francisco assembled when the 49ers raided the free-agent market in 1994 and walked away with the championship — or will the Eagles simply be an all-star team that’s built to disappoint?

“We’ve seen the streets littered with teams that have spent a lot of money,” said former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, now an ESPN analyst. “The Eagles have spent over $200 million in this off-season procuring talent. But we just don’t know how quickly that talent can come together, or if it ever comes together.”

Jaworski said he would be “very surprised” if the Eagles can hit the ground running with their reshaped roster.

“I know the term ‘Dream Team’ has been thrown out there,” he said. “The guys I know in the Eagles organization despise that word. They know it’s going to be difficult because of the lack of OTAs [organized team activities], rookies not getting their playbook, the veterans that were brought in not getting their playbook.

“I think it’s going to be difficult to get off to a fast start.”

The standings will show that there are eight divisions in the NFL, but really there’s a ninth — the division between the hoarding houses, teams who spend almost all of their money and energy keeping their own players, and the boarding houses, the ones that cycle players in and out while always searching for that right combination.

Of course, the line isn’t always so distinct as it is in the Keystone State this season. Everyone dabbles in free agency to some degree, just as everyone strives to keep their best players around. But some teams are historically homegrown, whereas others — such as Washington, with very little success — are constantly scanning the horizon to assemble a fantasy-football-type roster.

New England is an example of a team that blends philosophies, often very well. The Patriots typically have kept their core of top talent together, with quarterback Tom Brady as the centerpiece, while occasionally blending in an outstanding outsider who fits their system. This season, New England’s two most noticeable newcomers are defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth and receiver Chad Ochocinco.

“Stable teams have a blueprint, and they know what they’re looking for, so they don’t bring the wrong pieces in very often,” said NBC’s Tony Dungy, who won a Super Bowl with the largely homegrown Indianapolis Colts. “That’s the key. If you’re bringing in the right pieces, I don’t think it matters if you do it through the draft or free agency.”

When it comes to teams that have done free-agency wrong, the Redskins are in a class by themselves. Among the big-name players who flopped in Washington were Haynesworth, Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, quarterback Jeff George, receiver Brandon Lloyd, safety Adam Archuleta and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter. As exceptional as those players were in other places, they were merely cashing robust paychecks with the Redskins.

The Eagles, of course, are determined not to go down that road. They’re aiming to do what the 49ers did in 1994, when they took full advantage of the new free-agency system coming out of a just-signed collective bargaining agreement. They spent millions on free agents such as Ken Norton Jr., Gary Plummer, Rickey Jackson and Sanders — named the league’s defensive player of the year that season — on their way to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

“We don’t feel that philosophically there’s any change,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said. “This was a very unique marketplace, and we wanted to be very agile and strike.

“I sense players, especially players who have been in the league for a while, they have earned a lot of money. What’s missing? It’s to win a Super Bowl.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

twitter.com/LATimesfarmer