Pavelle: The State Of The Steelers’ Offensive Line

NOTE: This is an edited, updated, and expanded version of a January 3 article I wrote for the old site.

CURRENT OFFENSIVE LINE ROSTER (9 Players):

• C-1 Maurkice Pouncey. Age 30, FA 2022. Everyone talks about Pouncey retiring but they forget how young he really is. Centers often play into their mid-30’s. Pouncey could easily play 4-5 more years if he still has the passion.
• C-2 B.J. Finney. Age 28, Unrestricted Free Agent. A lifelong Steelers fan, Finney has been a rock as the C/G multitool backup. His status is going to be one of the key levers of Pittsburgh’s draft strategy moving forward. More discussion below.
• C-3 J.C. Hassenauer. Rookie, Unrestricted Free Agent. The Falcons brought him in as a promising C/G backup, who the Steelers poached when Pouncey got hurt. He was considered a prize UDFA but not much more than that, and at this point we just don’t know any more.
• OG-1a David DeCastro (Age 29, FA 2022). ‘Nuff said.
• OG-1b Ramon Foster (Age 33, FA 2021). Ramon Foster will have a cap hit of $5.75 Million if he is on the team in 2020. It would cost the Steelers a $1.575 Million dead money cap hit if he is released. More discussion below.
  • [OG-3 Matt Feiler]
  • [OG-4 B.J. Finney]
• OT-1a Alejandro Villanueva (Age 31, FA 2021). A solid pass blocker who is only okay in the run game. There’s only so much money a team can spend on any unit, even the OL, and the bottom line is that AV is a mid-level Left Tackle who gets paid appropriately.
• OT-1b Matt Feiler (Age 27, Restricted Free Agent). A solid, mid-level Right Tackle who would probably be even better at Guard. More discussion below.
• OT-3a and 3b Chuks Okorafor (Age 22, 6’6”, 320(?) lbs., FA 2022) and OT-3b Zach Banner (Age 26, 6’9”, 330?) lbs., Restricted Free Agent). Both young men are viewed as competent backups who might be able to start but haven’t been able to beat out Villanueva or Feiler. More discussion below.

CURRENT PRACTICE SQUAD/FUTURES PLAYERS

• T/G Derwin Gray. Futures Contract. At 6’4”, 320 lbs. with looong 34⅜” arms, last year’s 7^th Round pick was considered a boom-or-bust project with the physical talents to mature into a Top 20 starter at either Tackle or Guard, but held back by so many technique issues that busting out seemed more likely. Surviving the preseason cuts suggested good things. A full year on the practice squad could only have helped. But has the NFL coaching, drills, and training really sunk in?
• OT-6 Christian DiLauro. Futures Contract. 6’5”, 300 lbs. A 2018 UDFA who has bounced around various practice squads, he profiled in that draft as a mobile, quick-footed, boom-or-bust prospect from a smaller program who desperately needed 20-30 pounds of good, lower body muscle but had genuine potential if he could build it. Has he? And if so, how much of the potential has he realized?

NOTABLE CAP ISSUES

• Ramon Foster is aging and may be a cap casualty.
• BJ. Finney would be a starter on many teams in the league and is very likely to leave if someone offers him those snaps and the associated money. If he leaves they will need a replacement.
• Matt Feiler and Zach Banner are both RFA’s, which means they will almost certainly be back next year but will hit the market simultaneously with Villanueva if no long term deal gets signed. Feiler, in particular, may be a target for extension talks.

Pittsburgh’s 2019 offensive struggles caused a lot of fans to point accusing fingers at the Offensive line, put those in a position to know (like Coach Tomlin, Tunch Ilkin, and Craig Wolfley) have repeatedly said they didn’t deserve it. Looking a little deeper explains why. The 2019 Steelers line faced a perfect storm of adversity so profound it is hard to believe they played as well as they did.

• They lost the franchise QB. Yikes.
• That meant they had to deal with slow decisions (MR, yikes # 2) , lack of arm (DH, yikes # 3), and a huge number of blown protection calls (both young men, yikes # 4).
• The flaws at QB also resulted in loaded boxes and all sorts of exotic, high risk defenses designed to overwhelm the offensive line in exchange for the bet that our QB could not make the defense pay (yikes # 5).
• The high priced free agent veteran at WR2 spent the whole year hurt (Moncrief, yikes # 6), the very young WR1 did the same (Juju, yikes # 7), and both Washington and Johnson were clearly developing through their youth (yikes # 8 and yikes # 9).
• The other veteran WR was Switzer, who spent the year on IR (yikes # 10).
• All that results in constant 8-man boxes and run blitzes. Absent a smart and able QB, you can only beat that defense by asking the OL to achieve a tie so that your running back can make a special play and go to the house. Oops! The RB1 was also broken and doesn’t have breakaway speed in any event (Conner, yikes # 11 and # 12), and the RB2 was a rookie without breakaway speed (Snell, yikes # 13). And, of course, the defense knew what you had to try. Yikes # 14.
• Foster finally got to be a weak link rather than a weaker one. Yikes # 15. Rosie Nix spent his year on IR (yikes # 16). The TE1 spent half the year hurt (McDonald, yikes # 16). The TE2, Vannett, had to be traded for, was new to the offense, was primarily a blocker anyway, and struggled enough for all those reasons to earn yikes # 17. Your TE3 was a 370-pound Tackle (Banner, yikes # 18).
• Then there’s the coaching issues. Mike Munchak departed to be with his grandkids (yikes x 19). He may have left behind an able heir in Coach Sarrett, but aside from everything else, Munch had been the run game coordinator. The much beloved WR coach Darryl Drake died, leaving that room in chaos and depression (yikes # 20). The offensive coordinator had to juggle all of that despite being in only his second year (yikes # 21). The running backs coach departed (yikes # 22).
• And just to be extra clear, all of those factors increase the effects of the others. Yikes # 23.

What in the world did we expect?

But for all of that I think most of us agree that the offensive line could use an early infusion of talent.

First things first. Ramon Foster may have been only okay as a starter, but he’s been an absolutely fantastic and invaluable Steeler. If you have not read that linked article, do. Every true fan of the team should join in wholehearted thanks when he gets the gold watch. But as this really good writer points out (he is a state championship level high school coach who loves O-line play), that time has probably come. Foster, a 6’5”, 330 lb. converted college Tackle, built his career on adequate physical assets held together by tremendous savvy and solid technique. The assets have aged; he got paid last year; and the salary cap crunch is too acute to pay for locker room leadership alone.

So… Assume that Ragu is a cap casualty. What happens next? Finney could play Guard but teams hate to expose their backup Center. Most likely, Matt Feiler would move inside (where he probably belongs), leaving Chuks and Banner to compete for the Right Tackle snaps.

Both young men have shown signs that they could manage just fine. Okorafor looked sensational in 2018 as a rookie. He just got beat out by Feiler’s even more startling maturation. As for Banner, his issue had always been nothing but weight control, and he lost 80 pounds during the last offseason. That is not a typo! The improvement in his play could be seen instantly in 2019, and another offseason to work on his skills as much as he did on his body could lead to almost any height. And there is also some good boom-or-bust depth behind those two. Derwin Gray and Chris DiLauro both have the physical ability to cut in line too if they’ve managed to make The Leap, including a chance that Gray might do so by excelling enough at Guard to push Feiler back outside.

All in all, the offensive line looks to be as good or better in 2020 than it was in 2019, even without accounting for the perfect storm clearing away. But the pipeline needs to be filled! At what position? Anything but Center. A steal at Tackle would be fantastic, since “good” can always be improved. A steal at Guard would be just as fantastic.

“Anything but Center? Isn’t Pouncey getting on in years? And what if B.J. Finney leaves too?”

First, Pouncey is hardly “getting on in years.” He’s 30 years old, which is right in the prime of a Center’s career. I won’t claim that he’s the next coming of Mike Webster or Dermontti Dawson, but he’s the next best thing. Those two can each make an argument for being the GOAT. Pouncey is a fringe HOF’er who might just make it. Be reasonable Steeler Nation!

As for Finney… Well, that one bothers me to be entirely frank. Teams protect their backup Centers precisely because weakness at that position is extremely hard to cover, and Pouncey has a history of missing games. Can Hassenauer do the job? We simply don’t know. But if Finney leaves the team will, at the very least, need to bring in someone who can compete for the backup position. But that is a Day 3 or UDFA priority. The ideal would be a prospect who could compete for snaps as a starting Guard, with the late round Center as the emergency backup, since starting Guards get exposed to injuries of their own.

“But shouldn’t Guards get some kind of bonus? Okorafor and Banner are both pure Tackles who lack the build for success at Guard. Derwin Gray is unproven, and DiLauro is another Tackle-or-Nothing guy.”

That’s a great point! Would you believe I hadn’t thought of it until this article was almost done? My answer is that superior Tackles are really, really hard to find. Guards are much more common, and the pure power types often fall well into the depths of Day 3 and/or to UDFA status. But I will start to discount the pure OT’s who don’t offer a really rare level of talent.

Well then! Has your brain started to hurt? Mine has. But at least one thing has now become clear. The Steelers have a “want” on the Offensive Line but not a “need.” They can afford to go BPA, will benefit most from going BPA, and won’t face disaster if the best players turn out to be in some other position group. So let’s define a few terms, and then have a look at what the OL draft options are going to be.

Pittsburgh plays a mixed blocking scheme that employs inside zone and power concepts, with a lesser smattering of outside zone. In recent years, Ramon Foster wasn’t strong enough to dig opponents out, quick enough to make the difficult reach block, nor light footed enough to be a successful puller in space. He survived because he excelled at anchoring against anyone, and holding his position no matter what so a RB with good vision could reliably run into the hole behind him. All the movement jobs fell to DeCastro and Pouncey.

• “Power Guards” specialize in digging out opposing DT’s and move them against their will from point “a” to point “b”. They need to be used like younger and stronger versions of the Big Ragu.
• “Pulling Guards” are their counterparts. They succeed by getting out into space and creating lanes that did not exist before, and go to teams that tend to rely more heavily on outside zone concepts. I’ve kept them out of this article, but names on the full Big Board who’d fit this description include G/T Saahdiq Charles from LSU, and Jack Driscoll from Auburn.
• G/T’s are the college Tackles who will need to move inside for the NFL, but offer assets in all areas and can move outside to Tackle for a game or few if some emergency arises.
• T/G’s are the players who seem to fit best at Tackle but may have the ability to move inside if that experiment fails. They are typically the Size XXL Right Tackle prototypes who are too tall to have the natural leverage one looks for in a pure Guard, but have the physical oomph to be a phone box people mover if they can learn enough technique to stay low. Note that most successful NFL Tackles would be T/G’s because they have that technique. They’re played outside because edge protectors are more rare.
• Pure OT’s are the really long, movement-oriented Tackles like Villanueava and Okorafor. They tend to be to tall to play with the leverage required for a Guard, and are built more like oversized TE’s.
• C/G are prospects who played Center in college but have the size and technique to play Guard as well. There are no pure Centers on these lists because they have been discounted due to lack of need.

Interior Offensive Line Options for Round 2:

The first three are Centers with the ability to compete as starting Guards while they understudy for Pouncey. Can they beat out Feiler for that starting Guard position? If so, they will simultaneously firm up the future at Center and raise the possibility of sloughing off Pouncey’s extremely large salary. Muti is a Round 1 Guard in performance and potential, but a walking commercial for the medical red flag industry.

Offensive Tackle Options for Round 2.

Impressive! There are six (6!) Tackles with the physical ability to put a guy like Villanueva to shame if everything clicks.

• Josh Jones has the highest floor, and is already a better run blocker than AV, but he is also the most mature of the Tackle prospects and the one who is least likely to fall into the mid-2^nd.
• Trey Adams would be ahead of Jones if not for the abundant medical red flags.
• Niang is a guy who’s flashed both great and awful. We need to trust in the process to tell us more about the “why”. Does anyone here have input to share?
• Wanogho, Wilson, and Jackson all offer the classic boom-or-bust dilemma: HOF-level physical ceilings tied to total bust floors. All three will require redshirt rookie seasons. Wanogho is just that new to the game. Wilson and Jackson are just that young. Both are only 20 years old and do not have enough technique to compete (yet) with fully grown professionals on the other side of the line.

Interior Offensive Line Options for the 3:comp, 4.a and 4.b Picks:

Yes, this does indeed look like the sweet spot of the draft to grab a prospect who would challenge Feiler for the LG position that Foster would leave empty. The best of this group are likely to go in the late-2^nd or early-3^rd, but Guards tend to fall and this is a somewhat top-heavy class for the more desirable positions like Edge Rushers, Linebackers, and Corners.

Offensive Tackle Options for the 3:comp, 4.a and 4.b Picks:

Don’t write these prospects off! Van Lane, Bartch, and Durant all have the ability to move inside in a pinch, and Cleveland and Peart have genuine blind-side potential. At this point in the draft it is fair to lean heavily toward a Guard over a pure Tackle, but these are the prospects who might be worth breaking that tendency.