The Pittsburgh Steelers focused on improving their offensive line this offseason. In free agency they went out and signed guard Isaac Seumalo who is projected to start at left guard this year while also signing depth such as guard Nate Herbig and tackle Le’Raven Clark. The Steelers capped off their offensive line heavy offseason by drafting tackle Broderick Jones in the the first round of the NFL Draft.
However, despite this heavy emphasis on rebuilding the offensive line, Dallas Robinson of Pro Football Network isn’t too impressed. In his recent article ranking the offensive lines of every team he ranked the Steelers as 16th best, last in the AFC North.
“The Steelers quietly rebuilt the interior of their offensive line over the past two offseasons, as Seumalo, Cole, and Daniels all signed multi-year deals worth less than $9 million annually,” wrote Robinson. “Then, Pittsburgh moved ahead of the Jets in the 2023 draft to grab Jones, the best tackle prospect remaining on the board. He should represent an immediate upgrade over Dan Moore Jr., the Steelers’ LT for the past two years.”
Pittsburgh’s offensive line saw improvement in 2022 that many Steelers fans would describe as massive. Even though in comparison to some other teams it wasn’t great, it was a huge step up from 2021. With the new additions this offseason it projects to be even better, but there are some moving parts that could alter how they play.
For one, Seumalo and Jones (if he starts Week One) are two new pieces who will need to adjust to playing on a new team and in a new system. While the Steelers may project as having an improved offensive line with them, we simply won’t know if they actually play better until the real games starts.
However, I do believe the Steelers offensive line is better than the Cincinnati Bengals. Yes the Bengals made a splash in bringing in Orlando Brown Jr., but overall their offensive line did not look very good last year. In fact, I think you can make the argument that the Steelers had a better offensive line last year, and I am not sure the addition of Brown catapults the Bengals over the Steelers.
At the end of the day these are just very early rankings. We don’t know what everything will look like yet come training camp, let alone the regular season. Remember how bad the Steelers offensive line looked last offseason? By the end of the regular season I would not be surprised to see the Steelers offensive line sneak into the top ten.
