Since becoming GM, Omar Khan has spent as much time and effort investing in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line as anything. For the first time in team history, and they’ve been drafting since the NFL’s first edition in 1936, the Steelers selected first-round offensive tackles in back-to-back drafts. In 2024, they spent their top two picks up front and a third by the time the fourth round was over. They’ve found veterans too in LG Isaac Seumalo, paying good money to bring him in.
Pittsburgh entered the summer stronger and deeper along the o-line than it has been in a long time. Which is good. Because as the NFL’s showing, that depth can be tested in a hurry.
The Steelers have enjoyed unbelievably good offensive line injury luck the last two years. In 2022, Pittsburgh was the only team to have all five starters up front all 17 games. Last year, James Daniels, Isaac Seumalo, and Mason Cole didn’t miss a game while Dan Moore Jr. started all but one. The only shift was Chukwuma Okorafor, benched and not injured, and Broderick Jones finished the year unscathed.
This summer’s different. Troy Fautanu sprained his MCL in the preseason opener while Broderick Jones has played through “multiple” injuries. Nate Herbig is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff. Dylan Cook is on short-term IR with a knee injury, and it’s possible that Seumalo joins him. That’s more injuries now than what the Steelers have experienced up front the last two years. And it isn’t even September.
But that’s the NFL. No one is feeling sorry for Pittsburgh nor should they. But it’s a hand the Steelers haven’t been dealt in awhile. Now, the young bucks will have to pick things up. Fast. Zach Frazier is looking like the right choice at center but still has to show it in regular-season action. Fautanu, fortunately, is getting healthy for Week 1 although it’d make sense for the team to sit him to begin the year after missing valuable summer reps. Left guard will be the spot to truly watch. Until Seumalo returns, Spencer Anderson or Mason McCormick will fill in. It sounds like Pittsburgh will let them battle it out, both playing well this summer and deserving of the chance.
Whoever the team picks can’t make the team miss Seumalo too much. Pittsburgh’s offensive lines have gotten off to slow starts the past two seasons. Given the difficulty of the schedule and division, there is no warming up to the year. No waiting until the second half of the season, as has been the case in ’22 and ’23, for the group to figure things out. That mission is tougher with a younger and beat-up front five. But the mission remains the same.
