After several seasons with few major injuries along their offensive line, the Pittsburgh Steelers are suffering from the injury bug worse than ever at the position group. Rookie center Zach Frazier was the latest lineman to go down, sustaining an ankle injury against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday that will sideline him for at least a week. The ever-growing list includes center Nate Herbig, guard James Daniels, and first-round rookie tackle Troy Fautanu — all are all out for the season — not to mention the fact that veteran guard Isaac Seumalo missed the first four games of the season due to injury.
During his weekly press conference, Mike Tomlin was asked if the offensive line’s health is a factor in the decision to start Justin Fields or Russell Wilson at quarterback now that the latter is healthy. Tomlin ignored the quarterback element of the question, but still gave his two cents on the offensive line situation.
“We haven’t had a healthy offensive line group at any component of this journey that is the 2024 season,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “We’re not holding our breath for that. We’re just simply doing what is required week in and week out to put the very best group out there. I thought we had unique depth at the position during team development. We talk about it a lot in this setting and I’m thankful that we have because we called upon it.
“We’ll probably have our seventh collection of starters in seven weeks, but it doesn’t change our agenda or our expectations regarding those guys. One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity. There’s been a lot of guys who’ve displayed that during the course of this journey and Ryan McCollum will just be the latest guy to get an opportunity to display that this week.”
The Steelers have already started eight different linemen through six weeks with McCollum set to be the ninth. Their performance has been shaky overall this season, but the line is coming off arguably its best run-blocking outing against the Raiders, consistently opening up holes as the Steelers rushed for 183 yards and three touchdowns. Pass blocking was a different story.
If Mike Tomlin decides to start Russell Wilson Sunday night against the visiting New York Jets, then strong pass protection will be imperative. Wilson doesn’t have Justin Fields’ mobility. He won’t be able to scramble for positive yardage when the pocket collapses. Just like Fields, Wilson has struggled with holding onto the ball for too long throughout his career, and he’s therefore prone to taking lots of sacks. Wilson’s 100 sacks taken over the last two seasons led all quarterbacks (Fields was second with 99).
As for McCollum, he was on the Steelers’ practice squad for the last two seasons, before finally making the 53-man roster in 2024 after Nate Herbig’s injury. McCollum filled in at center for most of the second half Sunday after Frazier’s injury, and left tackle Dan Moore Jr. claimed the offense “didn’t miss a beat.”
While that may have been the case, Frazier had been playing exceptional football over the first six weeks, and it remains to be seen how McCollum will hold up in a full game as the starting center. For now, it’s next man up, and as Mike Tomlin loves to say, “One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity.”
