The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line had high expectations entering the 2024 season, but injuries caused a lot of issues early in the year. It hasn’t been perfect, but a lot of those issues have been cleaned up. The group deserves a ton of credit for the offense’s turnaround over the last eight games.
True to his playing days, Ben Roethlisberger pointed to the offensive line as a driving force behind the Steelers outperforming expectations with a 10-3 record so far.
“To me, the unsung heroes of this team so far is the offensive line,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday via 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann. “Through injuries, the rookies, you just don’t see a group — and listen, I’m not saying that they’re the best o-line in the business or this, that and the other, but they’re consistent and they’re helping.
“The run game is good enough at times; sometimes it’s great. There’s issues with when you get Myles Garrett coming on the outside in Cleveland, but shoot, he’s gonna do that all the time anyway. So there’s gonna be times, but all in all, the way that the line has played and the cohesiveness of that group to me is the reason for their success.”
Consider that for the first five weeks of the season, the Steelers didn’t start the same group for two games in a row. Troy Fautanu came in for Broderick Jones at right tackle before getting injured. Isaac Seumalo was out at first with Spencer Anderson and then Mason McCormick filling in at left guard. Then veteran right James Daniels went down. They have also had to deal with an injury to center Zach Frazier that held him out for a few weeks, and Broderick Jones’ rough start to the season.
Most o-lines might have imploded with all of those moving pieces, but the Steelers have found a way to jell and gain consistency as the season goes on. McCormick and Jones have been playing their best football lately while Zach Frazier has been remarkably consistent all year as a rookie outside of one bad game in the snow versus the Browns.
Left tackle Dan Moore Jr. went from weak link to one of the best players in the group, likely earning himself a big payday somewhere else this offseason.
After taking 12 sacks over his first four games as the starter, Russell Wilson has only taken seven over the last three. For a more apples-to-apples comparison, the Steelers allowed just one sack to the Browns on Sunday compared to four a few weeks ago.
Despite the Steelers no longer getting much from their quarterback on the ground to help inflate their numbers, they still have a top-10 rushing offense. They are rushing for 132.1 yards per game with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren both finding success as of late.
