As if the film from the second half of the season wasn’t a big enough indictment of the job offensive line coach Pat Meyer did in Year 3 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s time to pour some salt into the wound.
Under Meyer’s guidance, the bookend tackle duo of Dan Moore Jr. and Broderick Jones finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the NFL in sacks allowed on the season. Only one other NFL team — the Tennessee Titans, owners of the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft — had a bookend tackle pairing in the top 10 in sacks allowed during the regular season.
What a mess.
Moore, who started the season strong, completely collapsed in the second half of the season. From Week 10 on, Moore allowed 10 of his 12 sacks in the regular season and 27 of his 41 pressures. Four times in the second half of the season Moore was charged with allowing two or more sacks in a game, according to Pro Football Focus, doing so against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 11 and the Cleveland Browns in Week 12 and then against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals in Weeks 17 and 18.
Moore played 1,111 snaps in the regular season and had the worst season of his career in a contract year, allowing a career-worst 12 sacks. Based on his play in the first half of the season, there was a chance that Moore might have played his way into another contract with the Steelers, especially with Jones struggling and rookie first-round pick Troy Fautanu being lost for the season.
But that ship has seemingly sailed as his play cratered in the second half under Meyer.
As Moore struggled at left tackle to protect QB Russell Wilson, so did Jones at right tackle, particularly late in the season. Though Jones did not give up sacks as frequently as Moore in the second half of the season — just three of his 10 regular-season sacks allowed came after Week 10 — he gave up a ton of pressure, which is just as disruptive.
From Week 10 on, Jones allowed 22 of his 43 pressures on the season. In the playoff loss to the Ravens, Jones allowed another two pressures and a sack.
Though he settled in some at right tackle in the second half of the season, it seems likely that Jones will flip back to left tackle for 2025, allowing Fautanu to stay at right tackle with Moore leaving in free agency. Still, Jones has played 1,873 snaps at right tackle in his first two NFL seasons and just 129 at left tackle, so that will be worth monitoring moving forward.
Based off the numbers from both Moore and Jones in the postseason with two rounds and the Super Bowl still to go, there’s a good chance both could finish the regular season and postseason combined as the league leaders in sacks allowed.
Only Washington’s Brandon Coleman (nine), Detroit’s Taylor Decker (eight), and Houston’s Shaq Mason (eight) are within striking distance of Moore’s 12 and Jones’ 11 sacks allowed in regular season and postseason combined.
Pair those numbers in pass protection from the two tackles with the Steelers’ inability to consistently run the football and hold up in pass protection as a whole, and it’s rather damning against Meyer. It’s why the Steelers should move on from the offensive line coach and attempt to reset there on the coaching staff, especially after having invested so many resources into the trenches in recent years in the draft and free agency.
