It’s no secret the Pittsburgh Steelers’ success lies in its offensive line. Even with headline additions like QB Aaron Rodgers and WR DK Metcalf, the o-line is the engine. That front five, especially young offensive tackles Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu, are in for a heck of a fight.
Add Micah Parsons to the list of high-end to elite pass rushers the Steelers will face this season. After four years in Dallas, the Cowboys shipped him to the Green Bay Packers in a monster trade to shake up the NFL landscape literally one week from the 2025 regular season opener, a game Dallas is taking part in. Assuming he’s healthy, Parsons will face the Steelers in Week Eight.
The division is tough enough. Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson and Cleveland’s Myles Garrett are two of the best in the business. Hendrickson took over the regular season finale and topped the league in sacks thanks to the 3.5 he notched in Week 18. Garrett’s stats may feel subdued against Pittsburgh compared to other teams (he still has 13 in 14 regular season games), but he’s a game wrecker who must be accounted for on every snap.
Of the top 11 highest-paid pass rushers in the NFL, Pittsburgh will face five of them: Micah Parsons, Myles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson, Chicago’s Montez Sweat and Green Bay’s Rashan Gary. Pittsburgh, of course, has its own in T.J. Watt, now the second-highest paid rusher in football.
That doesn’t account for the other notable names. Aidan Hutchinson could join that top list by Week One. Before getting hurt a year ago, he was leading the league in sacks and is a star in the making. Pittsburgh will begin the season facing the New York Jets’ Will McDonald, who broke out in 2024 with 10.5 sacks. Don’t sleep on the Minnesota Vikings’ Jonathan Greenard, who picked up 12 sacks in Brian Flores’ chaotic defense that stresses protections no matter his personnel.
Those eight names combined for 86.5 sacks last season, a figure that would’ve neared 100 had Hutchinson not broken his leg.
Jones and Fautanu will handle most of the action. They won’t be the only ones. Creative schemes are aligning top pass rushers all over the field to make them harder to identify and to block. Garrett can and will play three-technique on passing downs. Parsons plays off-ball and on the edge. Greenard can do it all in the Vikings’ scheme. The Steelers’ front five must identify and communicate pre-snap. That’s half the battle. Executing and blocking is the other half.
There’s no telling how the season goes, and no guarantee that Pittsburgh faces all these names. The Steelers avoided Parsons a year ago after he sprained his ankle and missed four games. But the Steelers better be prepared to face an absolute slew of best pass rushers the NFL has to offer. Pittsburgh needs Broderick Jones, Troy Fautanu and this o-line to be everything it has the potential of becoming. If the group falls short, Rodgers, Metcalf and the rest of the acquisitions won’t matter.
