Over the last two seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers have done quite a bit of work rebuilding the offensive line.
The additions of Mason Cole and James Daniels in free agency ahead of the 2022 season, and then the signings of Nate Herbig and Isaac Seumalo this offseason, along with the selection of Broderick Jones in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft seeming had the Steelers in a good position under second-year offensive line coach Pat Meyer.
Through the first four games of the 2023 season, the Steelers’ offensive line is in anything but a good position. It is playing rather poorly in the first month of the season, which has exacerbated the offensive struggles overall.
While third-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada is under significant fire once again due to a lack of creativity and the inability to gain yards on a consistent basis, former NFL head coach Mike Martz doesn’t believe that Canada or even second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett is the biggest concern for the Steelers.
Instead, he is pointing the finger right at the reshaped offensive line.
“Going back and looking at it real close, I was curious, and I’ve watched them throughout the season here so far in these four weeks. And…they’re just not very good on the offensive line,” Martz said to former NFL QB Rich Gannon and former NFL head coach Chuck Pagano for The 33rd Team Thursday. “I’m just watching the basics of what you’re supposed to do in the running game, when to snap off a double team to pick up the run through, the protections… It’s just, they’re just turning guys loose left and right.
“They’re not picking up blitzers. They’re just awful up front right now. And as a coordinator, you’re responsible for that too. But by the same token, they’re just not very good up front. And then when that happens, as you know, the quarterback, when the gates are open and you can’t go through a normal progression, you’re just trying to survive and then you get bad habits and then things just go downhill from there.”
The offensive line has been rather dreadful through the first four weeks of the season.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Steelers are woeful in pass protection. Pittsburgh has allowed 64 total pressures through four games to go along with Pickett being sacked 11 times. Left tackle Dan Moore Jr., who is out on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens with a knee injury, leads the Steelers in pressures allowed with 20 on the season.
The next closest lineman is Cole with 11 pressures.
Pittsburgh’s offensive line is the worst pass-blocking team for PFF at 31.8 overall and is the fourth-worst run blocking team in football at just 62.4 overall. Those issues up front compound issues for the offense.
With an inability to establish a consistent running game due to mistakes within the design of the plays, turning guys loose, as Martz says, keeps Pittsburgh stuck in the mud. Then, in pass protection, Pickett is starting to drop his eyes to the pass rush far too quickly as he’s worried about the pressure. That’s putting him at an immediate disadvantage, which is hindering the rest of the offensive line.
Things are not great right now — at all — in the trenches for Pittsburgh, even with Seumalo coming off a great game against the Houston Texans in Week Four and rookie Broderick Jones set to make his first career start on Sunday against the Ravens. The Steelers have invested quite a bit up front, but it’s still not good enough currently. That’s a little discouraging.
We’ll see if the group can get things right moving forward as they continue to gel.
