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No one in the NFL needs to watch the athletic footwear commercial featuring the voice of Bob Dylan, or read another story about Cate Blanchett's gender-bending portrayal of the iconic folksinger in an upcoming feature film, to fully understand the reality that the times are always a-changing in the league.

In the era of the salary cap and free agency -- even as the system has evolved into one in which teams have done a far better job retaining their own best veteran players, compliments of a $102 million ceiling that represents a nearly 20 percent increase over last year -- the middle initial in the NFL's all-caps acronym could be shorthand for "Flux."

There are 10 new head coaches in the NFL in 2006 -- the most since 1997, and as many changes as the league underwent combined for the past two seasons; the league has averaged 7.1 changes per year over the past two decades. Teams hired 26 new coordinators on both sides of the ball, and there figure to be a dozen switches at quarterback. There are even four new general managers. And at the game's most anonymous position, center, there might be as many as 11 new starters in 2006. Depending on who wins the three-man training camp battle for the starting quarterback spot, the Buffalo Bills, in an attempt to remake the franchise, could be six-for-six in those critical areas.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, in the early estimation of most oddsmakers and preview magazines, are hardly the favorites to defend the Super Bowl title. In fact, the No. 1 team in the ESPN.com offseason power rankings is the Seattle Seahawks, the franchise the Steelers defeated in Super Bowl XL. Yet the hallmark stability of those two teams, a major component to their success in 2005, isn't an element much emulated, not even in a league known for its copycat mind-set.

"Only one team holds up the trophy at the end of the year. And if you're not that one team, then you're one of the ones asking yourself, 'OK, so what changes do I have to make to get better?' If you aren't winning, then the more things stay the same, well, the more they stay the same," Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said at the annual league meetings in Orlando in March. The Texans will start 2006 with a new head coach, two different coordinators and a recently hired general manager.

Consider this: The Miami Dolphins won their final six games last season to finish 9-7 in head coach Nick Saban's first year on the job. But in his second year, Saban has a different offensive coordinator (Mike Mularkey), different defensive coordinator (Dom Capers) and new quarterback (Daunte Culpepper). And no one has blinked at the scope of the alterations.

How come? Because change, sometimes for no other reason than simply change's sake, has become the way of life in the NFL during the offseason. While the movement of big-name free agents has slowed in the last three years, as teams become wiser in how they handle the salary cap, "business as usual" in the NFL is still defined as not maintaining the status quo.

So despite the seemingly widespread turnover this spring, the 2006 season really isn't unlike most recent campaigns in terms of alterations, except for one significant exception: Change at the top of the league.

Assuming owners meet their Aug. 18 deadline for electing the successor to Paul Tagliabue, the NFL will open a new season with a new commissioner for the first time since 1990. And that, probably more than any move by a coach or player or general manager, marks the most notable change to this season.

In the short-term, which, despite contentions to the contrary, describes the focus of most franchises, the departure of Tagliabue may not have much impact, particularly on the field. Yet no matter how seamless the transfer to his successor, the off-field ramifications could be important, as the new commissioner seeks fresh revenue streams in the digital age.

Thankfully, whoever steps into Tagliabue's sizable wing tips will inherit a league with labor peace for the foreseeable future, bulging coffers (thanks largely to its television contracts) and a residual competitive balance that the commissioner championed.

One AFC owner this week termed Tagliabue "a giant" and suggested that his legacy will still cast a shadow over the NFL for a long time. "I wouldn't expect much immediate change at all," he said.

Which is hardly the case on the field, it seems, in any given season.

Eight of the franchises that qualified for the playoffs in 2002 didn't return to the postseason in 2003. From 2003 to 2004, the attrition rate was six teams, and last season it was seven. Certainly the indicator that counts most, making it to the playoffs, is also the yardstick that best portrays just how much the league gets shaken up on an annual basis. Over the last three seasons, an average of seven teams from the previous year's playoffs failed to return the next season.

No reason to believe that 2006 will be much different.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here .