Things might not have looked all that good during the preseason for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the trenches offensively, but that hasn’t diminished belief in the Black and Gold up front.
According to Pro Football Focus’s offensive line rankings entering Week 1 of the 2024 season, the Steelers remain inside the top 10, landing at No. 9 overall.
The Steelers’ OL ranked ahead of the Dallas Cowboys inside the top 10, a team they’ll see in Week 5 on Sunday Night Football. A big reason why the Steelers are inside the top 10 of PFF’s OL rankings is the investment the Steelers have made in the position group in recent years and the talent they’ve acquired.
“The Steelers spent back-to-back first-round picks on offensive tackles and then selected center Zach Frazier in the second round of this year’s draft. Those investments should pay off soon, and the team already got solid play from its guards in 2023,” PFF’s Zoltan Buday writes of the Steelers’ OL ranking. “Isaac Seumalo, who Pittsburgh signed as a free agent last year, put together a good 2023 season after some initial struggles and finished the year as the 12th-highest-graded guard in the NFL.”
After a few seasons of serious struggles in the trenches, GM Omar Khan and assistant GM Andy Weidl set out to build through the big men up front on both sides of the football after taking over the decision-making for the Steelers’ roster in 2022. Since then, Khan and Weidl have added serious talent along the offensive line.
Right guard James Daniels came over in free agency in 2022 before Khan and Weidl officially took over, but since the duo were put in charge following the Hall of Fame tenure of Kevin Colbert, the Steelers have beefed up their offensive line.
The Steelers signed left guard Isaac Seumalo in free agency last offseason, locking down the position for the foreseeable future, and then traded up in the first round of the 2023 draft to land Broderick Jones. In the 2024 NFL Draft, the Steelers did something they haven’t done since 1976: draft three offensive linemen in their first five selections with Troy Fautanu, Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick coming aboard.
Early on, some bumps and bruises are expected as the group jells and solidifies itself. Those bumps and bruises and overall struggles were present in the preseason and were a bit concerning. But the ceiling still appears to be a high for the Steelers in the trenches moving forward.
They just need those investments to fully pay off along the o-line.
