A mini-series to finish out the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 2025 offseason ahead of training camp. A checklist of goals to reach by the time the team breaks camp in mid-August.<\/p>\n
Training Camp Goal No. 2 \u2013 Learn About A Young Offensive Line<\/p>\n
As much fanfare as the Steelers\u2019 offseason has brought, the glitz and glam of skill position players and headline names like QB Aaron Rodgers, WR DK Metcalf, and CB Jalen Ramsey, it\u2019s taken the collective eye off the ball. The true measure of Pittsburgh\u2019s success this year and beyond is through its offensive line, a young and talented group carrying a high ceiling but a low floor.<\/p>\n
Become a top-10 unit? Sure, that\u2019s possible. Crash and burn to a bottom-10 group? Also on the table.<\/p>\n
Broderick Jones. Troy Fautanu. Mason McCormick. Three players under the microscope. Jones is coming off a rough second NFL season. Fautanu barely had a rookie year, playing five quarters of preseason and regular-season games combined. McCormick took over for an injured James Daniels after Week 4 and held his own, but his game has plenty of room to grow.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh can\u2019t have this unit fail. Doing so has obvious short-term ramifications. A running game that doesn\u2019t progress. A quarterback who isn\u2019t protected. Teams can scheme around a lot, but there\u2019s no masking a faulty offensive line. There are long-term consequences, too. Another bad year from Jones would have the team searching for a future left tackle. Confidence in Fautanu will be shaken if there\u2019s little ROI two years into his NFL career. McCormick is no slam dunk as a long-term starter either, while the one veteran of the front five, LG Isaac Seumalo, is on an expiring contract and could need to be replaced next offseason. On top of all the other areas Pittsburgh must address in 2026, beginning with quarterback, the team can\u2019t drop its bucks back into the offensive line well.<\/p>\n
Training camp alone doesn\u2019t tell you everything. A true test will come over the first month of the season when Pittsburgh faces defensive-minded head coaches like the New York Jets\u2019 Aaron Glenn, New England Patriots\u2019 Mike Vrabel, and an ultra-aggressive defensive coordinator like the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 Brian Flores\u2014guys who know how to scheme up the pressure and chaos.<\/p>\n
But camp is the starting point. Will Jones look comfortable and natural at left tackle, doing a 180 from how he looked a summer ago? A fuller look at Fautanu is important; he has plenty of reps to catch up on. Does McCormick make strides, lowering his pad level in the running game and being better on his edges in pass protection? Even C Zach Frazier has to go out and prove it again; his relationship with Rodgers is key.<\/p>\n
A good camp won\u2019t rubber stamp the regular season. But there must be a point where there\u2019s confidence about the Steelers\u2019 offensive line. For too long, there\u2019s been (understandable) pessimism, or at best a blank slate of uncertainty. An encouraging summer is the way to achieve that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mini-series to finish out the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 2025 offseason ahead of training camp. A checklist of goals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[465,7,21418,6,520,57,2360,426,12356],"class_list":{"0":"post-222041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-broderick-jones","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-mason-mccormick","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-troy-fautanu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114885695159679982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}