ANSWER TO AN ENIGMA?

here and there with a two, three or four, whatever,” Colbert said. “We feel good about the guys we have. It’s not like we tried to ignore the position. It’s who was available.

“It’s tough to predict health. All you can really look at is their injury history in college. Sometimes younger kids don’t adapt to this game.” it may be Ben Roethlisberger’s last — or at the least one of his last — does not take into account that it’s been done before, many times.

They probably would have made this flurry of moves in the days before the start of the regular season had Roethlisberger already retired and Landry Jones become their starting quarterback.

They’ve traded away players at the end of training camp before, acquired players via trade during that time and picked up others to help shore up their roster.

OK, so they never paid $7 million to add a cornerback 11 days before the start of the season. But that’s when Joe Haden became available. There were a reported dozen teams interested in signing Haden after the Browns released him, and it’s likely not all of those saw their windows shrinking — or even open.

As Colbert said the day after they signed Haden, it would have been negligent for them not to pursue him. Cornerback has been their weakest position for years and this was a no-brainer chance for them to improve it. Plus, Haden wanted to play here.

The other trades boosted their depth.

They acquired tight end Vance McDonald from San Francisco plus the 49ers’ sixth-round draft choice in exchange for the Steelers’ fifth-rounder in 2018. That may be the difference of just 10 spots, counting comp picks at the end of the fifth round if the 49ers go 2-14 again.

McDonald may not even start. Safety J.J. Wilcox won’t either as long as Mike Mitchell remains healthy. They got Wilcox from Tampa Bay plus the Buccaneers’ seventh-round pick for the Steelers’ sixth in 2018. Again, minorleague stuff.

They also picked up that sixthround draft choice from Cleveland for Sammie Coates, also sending the Browns the seventhrounder they later received in the Wilcox trade.

Those all were trades to enhance depth. Certainly nothing that would represent they were going all-in.

The lone exception was Haden. merely