The Pittsburgh Steelers used their first-round draft pick on T Troy Fautanu, and followed that up in the second round with C Zach Frazier. Rarely have they ever invested so heavily in the offensive line—in fact, paired with last year, it’s a unique occurrence.
The Steelers already made team history by using back-to-back first-round picks on the offensive line. They also drafted T Broderick Jones in the first round last year, trading up three spots to 14 to pick him. The closest they came was two first-round picks in a three-year period, in 2010 and 2012.
The 2012 NFL Draft is the last and only other time the Steelers drafted offensive linemen in the first two rounds, selecting G David DeCastro in the first and T Mike Adams in the second (and T Kelvin Beachum in the seventh). They had never made that type of investment before 2012 and had not since then until last night.
Combined, that’s two first-round picks and a second-round pick along the offensive line in a two-year period. They’ve never done that before, either, marking a franchise first, though they had one two-year period close to it with one first rounder and two second rounders. The year before taking DeCastro and Adams, the Steelers drafted T Marcus Gilbert in the second. Of course, they also drafted C Maurkice Pouncey in the first round in 2010, the year before Gilbert.
Looking ahead to the 2024 season, the Steelers could start an offensive line entirely encompassing early draft picks. They have their own selections in first-rounders Jones and Fautanu and second-rounder Frazier. They also have G James Daniels, a former second-rounder, and G Isaac Seumalo, a former third-rounder, two free agents.
Even after their offensive line investments of more than a decade ago, they still relied on lesser pedigree too. Ramon Foster, a former college free agent, started at left guard, for example. Willie Colon, a former fourth-round pick, initially moved to left guard in 2012 first after the Steelers drafted Adams. And, of course, their starting left tackles since then have been Beachum, Alejandro Villanueva (undrafted), and Dan Moore Jr. (fourth round).
Not that we should worship at the altar of pedigree, either. Theoretically, you prefer to start linemen taken early in the draft, because they’re supposed to be better. But we know just from comparing Adams to Beachum and Villanueva that things don’t always work out that simply.
And it’s easy to say during the draft how confident we are that Troy Fautanu and Zach Frazier will be great professionals and have decade-long careers. The Steelers wouldn’t have bothered drafting them if they didn’t think so themselves. Everybody teams are taking now are players they think can help for a long time. But many of them won’t.
What we can say is that the Steelers are putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to their commitment to the offensive line. Under new general manager Omar Khan, they’ve used both of their first-round picks on tackles. They have added a second-round center and signed a plug-and-play quality guard in Seumalo. Daniels is the only carryover prior to Khan and assistant GM Andy Weidl.
