The Pittsburgh Steelers have always been a hard-nosed football team built around defense and the running game. It’s hard to accomplish those goals without having great play on both the offensive and defensive line. When it comes to the offensive line, the current Steelers have put themselves in an interesting corner of the franchise’s history book.
With Pro Bowl rosters announced for the 2024 season this morning, the Steelers have four representatives. For the fourth season in a row, none of the Steelers’ Pro Bowlers were along the offensive line. That is a drought that you would have to go back nearly 50 years to find another example of in franchise history.
The last time the Steelers had a Pro Bowl o-lineman was in 2020 when David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey made the list. Since then, the Steelers have gone through multiple overhauls of their offensive line. They are closer now than they were a couple years ago, but the line is still in a state of flux. There are reasons for optimism in 2025 with all of the recent investments in the group, but nothing is guaranteed.
The last time that there was an OL Pro Bowl drought in Pittsburgh at least four seasons long was from 1974 to 1977. Surprising, right? The Steelers won their first two Super Bowls during that span. There were plenty of Pro Bowlers on the roster then, but none along the offensive line.
Just before that streak, G Bruce Van Dyke made the Pro Bowl in 1973. If it wasn’t for him, the Steelers would have been on a 13-season streak without a Pro Bowl o-lineman. From 1965 to 1972 there was an eight-year drought.
After the four-year drought in the 70s, the Steelers had a Pro Bowl o-lineman for eight straight seasons, and they’ve barely had any years without one since then. From 2000 until the start of the current drought, there were only four seasons without an o-lineman in the Pro Bowl.
There has always been at least one stud along the offensive line to make sure there isn’t a drought. Maurkice Pouncey and David DeCastro held down the Pro Bowl selections for years. Before them was Alan Faneca, and Dermontti Dawson before him. Mike Webster carried the torch starting in 1978. Along with some others sprinkled in here and there, those were the names that led the offensive line for the last 50 years.
Is this current drought going to continue extending like it did from 1965 to 1972, or will the buck stop here with a changing of the tides in 2025? Zach Frazier received the sixth-most Pro Bowl fan votes at center, so he seems like the next man up to carry the Pro Bowl torch for the o-line. Isaac Seumalo was on and off the top-10 votes list, but he is nearing the end of his career at this point. Mason McCormick briefly made the top-10 votes list, but he still has a long way to go before he earns the respect of the players and coaches that make up the other two thirds of the vote.
Hopefully Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu can start getting involved in this conversation sooner rather than later. The Steelers’ two most recent first-round picks will go a long way toward making or breaking this iteration of the offensive line.
Who do you think will be the next Steeler to end the drought and carry the torch of great offensive linemen in Pittsburgh?
