Pittsburgh Steelers Exit Meeting: OG Mason McCormick
Experience: 1 Year
The Steelers drafted Mason McCormick with an eye toward the future, but the future arrived early. Thanks to injuries at the guard position, McCormick played early and often during his rookie season. With starter James Daniels expected to leave in free agency, he is all but assured of a starting job in 2025.
Taken in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, McCormick has good size, strength, and physicality. Despite his old-school nature, he also possesses enough finesse to have the potential for more. The Steelers are a team that used to pull Ramon Foster, so you can bet they will work on that more with McCormick going forward.
Planning for the future, the Steelers used McCormick and Spencer Anderson a lot in training camp. That included numerous rest days for left guard Isaac Seumalo, who then proceeded to miss the first month of the season. Anderson started initially, but McCormick rotated in and then took over.
Just as Seumalo was returning, Daniels went down with a season-ending injury. By then, McCormick had already leapfrogged Anderson on the depth chart. The rookie took over at right guard and kept it for the remainder of the year.
And McCormick held up surprisingly well, both in pass protection and in run blocking, though not as consistently as desired. Particularly late in the year, it seemed as though the Steelers’ offensive line wore down. Having multiple rookies at the heart of the starting lineup didn’t help. Broderick Jones was also going through his first full season as a starter.
But Mason McCormick has the makings of a consistent, quality starter for years to come. And he could potentially be even more than that. Not, perhaps, the next David DeCastro and a perennial Pro Bowler, but a very solid guard who will most likely be underrated around the league. A high-energy, no-nonsense player who loves his job and does it efficiently.
Entering the 2025 season, the Steelers should have a right side of the offensive line entirely from the 2024 NFL Draft class. First-round pick Troy Fautanu all but missed his rookie season but is on track to return for next year. Second-round OC Zach Frazier started all year short of two games he missed due to injury. And Mason McCormick started most of those games next to him, though he missed the playoff game due to injury.
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves at home, the inevitable result of another early playoff exit. This is a repeated pattern for the organization, with no clear end in sight. As the Steelers conduct their own exit meetings, we will go down the roster conducting our own. Who should stay, and who should go, and how? Who should expect a bigger role next season, and who might deserve a new contract? We’ll explore those questions and more in these articles, part of an annual series.
