The Pittsburgh Steelers have been in the middle of an offensive line rebuild for years now, and that rebuild has been mostly unsuccessful until the last couple of years. They added James Daniels in free agency in 2022, then Isaac Seumalo in 2023 free agency. They then drafted Broderick Jones in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Entering this draft, they had multiple needs, and they opted to overstock the shelves with three offensive linemen in OT Troy Fautanu in the first round, C Zach Frazier in the second round, and OG Mason McCormick in the fourth round.
That is a huge infusion of talent and youth into the unit and should ensure both the present and future of the unit for years to come. As you can imagine, Steelers OL coach Pat Meyer is pretty thrilled.
“Christmas came early,” Meyer said to open the press conference immediately following the selection via Brooke Pryor of ESPN on X.
McCormick was a pre-draft visitor, so another logical connection to the Steelers throughout the pre-draft process became one of their selections. The guard position is currently set with James Daniels at right guard and Isaac Seumalo on the left, but Daniels is entering the final year of his contract and Seumalo is on the wrong side of 30 years old. Drafting McCormick gives them a better chance at a smooth transition when one or both move on from the team.
Some viewed McCormick as center-capable, though he only played about a game’s worth of snaps there in college. They announced him as a guard, and Meyer said that is where he will come in and compete on day one.
Meyer was asked why so many OL over the first four rounds.
“Numerous reasons,” Meyer said in the press conference posted on the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “We wanted to get, you know, continue to become youthful at that position…The draft is always different. You never know. We could have come out with zero this year and we came out with three. Just the way the draft order goes down and the pick and who’s available at that position.”
This is the first time since 1976 that the Steelers have invested this much in their OL over the first four rounds of the draft, per Steelers PR Michael Bertsch on X. Recently, Warren Sharp posted a chart showing the Steelers were among the lowest in OL investment over the last five years. With a trade-up for Broderick Jones in the first round last year and three picks out of the first five this year, that is no longer a narrative the Steelers need to worry about.
Meyer and assistant OL coach Isaac Williams were out on the pro day trail pretty heavily, and they got rewarded with three new talents to work with in their unit.
