Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back and current analyst Merril Hoge went on the DVE Morning Show on Wednesday, and he offered a scathing assessment of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line and the unit’s blocking as a whole.
“You got people coming in there, trying to play patty cake, your wide receivers don’t block anybody. Your left guard, who was a beast in Philly, has just gotten destroyed. Your center’s destroyed, your tackles are getting destroyed. I mean across the board. This is as bad of a group as there is in the National Football League right now,” Hoge said. “Unless they get better, you’ve got no shot at getting better. We can quit pointing fingers at Kenny Pickett, because if that doesn’t get corrected, you’re not gonna do anything offensively. That has to change, or their offense won’t change.”
The offensive line has been a surprising weak spot for the Steelers. The group looked like it would be better, especially with the addition of Isaac Seumalo, who as Hoge pointed out, hasn’t been very good so far. It was a unit that looked solid in the second half of last season, but like much of the progress made throughout the second half in 2022 and in the preseason, it’s been totally wiped away.
Kenny Pickett isn’t going to progress if he doesn’t have an offensive line to work with, and the running game won’t get going if there’s no room to run. It’s setting Pittsburgh’s offense back and it’s one of the key reasons why the offense as a whole hasn’t been good. Some of that goes back to play calling, with certain concepts underutilized as Alex Kozora pointed out, but the offensive line just hasn’t been good.
The talent is there for the group to improve, so it’s not as if all hope is lost. The first two games have been brutal, with Dan Moore Jr. grading out as one of the worst offensive linemen in football and the rest of the group not playing a whole lot better. Pickett isn’t absolved of blame, because his accuracy and decision-making has been poor through the first two games, but not having a line to give him time hasn’t really helped his case, either. It’s been a failure from top to bottom on offense, but the key to building a good team is to build up the offensive line. The Steelers have tried, but the execution hasn’t been there.
At some point, if Moore continues to struggle, the Steelers need to give Broderick Jones some reps and see what they have — and if he can be the guy they drafted him in the first round to be. You have to think that Seumalo will get back to being the player he was in Philly, or at least close to it, and everyone else will step up. If they don’t, the offense is doomed and the Steelers won’t be the team we thought they could be.
It’s only been two games, so going all doom and gloom is ridiculous, especially with the Steelers at 1-1. I can’t foresee the line being this bad the rest of the season, and it did run into two very good defensive lines in the 49ers and the Browns. But those are the type of defenses they’re going to see if they can make it to the postseason. So there needs to be tangible growth from the line. If there is, the offense as a whole will be better for it.
