Nothing is more important to the success or failure of a football team than the performance of the quarterback. That’s why the Pittsburgh Steelers are in such a compelling place right now with Kenny Pickett going into his second season. But if there is one other group by which the offense will sink or swim, it’s the offensive line.
Pittsburgh has invested a lot over the past two years, signing three starters in free agency and using a first-round draft pick. And it’s all on offensive line coach Pat Meyer to put it all together. His two veteran starters signed in 2022 spoke very highly of him yesterday.
“People don’t talk about him enough”, C Mason Cole told Tim Benz on the Breakfast with Benz podcast. “I can’t say enough good things about Pat. X’s and O’s, leadership in our room, he’s been so solid for us and so consistent. Our game plans have been so good offensive line-wise because of him. He’s been rock solid for our room”.
Hired in 2022 and given a bit of a hodgepodge group to work with, Meyer slowly transformed the offensive line into a competent unit by season’s end. It did not come without growing pains as everybody adjusted to his way of teaching, which both Cole and RG James Daniels insisted was thorough.
“Technique-wise, he’s unbelievable. The game plans and stuff we come up with in our room is really on him”, Cole said. “He’s just very focused on his techniques and things like that. Every guy in the room, he holds them to a certain standard, and when they’re not having good technique, he always talks about it”, added Daniels, via the team’s website.
The way things are going, it does look as though the Steelers will begin the 2023 season carrying over four starters from last year’s lineup, with Dan Moore Jr. thus far holding off rookie Broderick Jones at left tackle. The one new addition figures to be free agent Isaac Seumalo at left guard, a player who has been described as the smartest lineman in football, so he shouldn’t need much of a learning curve.
Seumalo is also a coach’s son, even if his father coaches the defensive line. Through that he learned all about studying film and how to break it down. It seems like the rest of the group is learning that from Meyer, as well. “He takes his time during film [review], and he takes a long to watch film just because he’s constantly talking about different techniques and things like that”, Daniels said.
He earned a lot of slack based on the state of the offensive line last season, but entering his second year with the team, the training wheels are off, and Meyer will be judged pass/fail based on the performance of his unit just like everybody else.
They picked things up in the second half of last season but must continue to build from there. Whether they can remains to be seen, but what we do knows is that his players love him. “It’s been awesome being able to play for him and I don’t think he gets enough credit”, Cole insisted.
