There is always only one thing at the top of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ agenda, year in and year out, and that’s winning the Super Bowl. The target never changes, even if it is an impossible standard to live up to. It takes many things to go right, including sheer luck, just to win once, let alone every year.
But the Steelers believe at least that they’ve taken major steps in getting one area of the roster solidified, and that’s the offensive line. Part of that process was signing free agent guard Isaac Seumalo, who knows what the deal is: protecting the quarterback.
“Offensive line, we’re our own unit and gotta do what we gotta do”, he told reporters last week during OTAs, according to Dale Lolley writing for the team’s website, himself coming over from the NFC-champion Philadelphia Eagles blocking for Jalen Hurts. “As long as we keep [Kenny] Pickett up and healthy we’ll be straight”.
That proved at times easier said than done last season. Pickett took 27 sacks in 2022 with a sack rate of 6.5 percent, meaning that he was sacked on 6.5 percent of his drop backs. That’s not horrible or great, but more concerning is the fact that he was concussed on two of them.
The 2022 first-round draft pick, who had never suffered a documented concussion before his rookie season, has moved to a safer helmet going forward, one designed specifically to prevent quarterbacks from suffering them.
The Steelers will need their young franchise quarterback to stay on the field to have a shot at living up to their own exceedingly lofty standards. They may have a good defense and a good running game this year—potentially—but without the requisite level of play under center, teams simply cannot win the hardware in this era. But with what they have now, Seumalo, fresh off of playing in the championship game, believes they have what it takes.
“This is a Super Bowl organization, so there’s no doubting about that”, he was quoted as saying about this Steelers team, the organization having last won a playoff game in 2016, his rookie year. “The team is solid. The defense is always solid, I can attest to that last year regardless of the score”.
The latter remark references the Steelers’ loss against the Eagles in week seven last season, a 35-13 blowout. It wasn’t exactly the best day the defense had, though that was really more on the secondary. Cameron Heyward still proved to be a handful. And the Steelers didn’t have T.J. Watt.
Which is yet another reminder of just how critical luck is in success, particularly with regard to help. Pittsburgh had all five starters along the offensive line start all 17 games last year. That’s very unlikely to happen again this year, as Seumalo would know well. He played all 17 games last year for the Eagles, but he missed 21 in the two years prior.
