Steelers’ rebuilt O-line completes changed offensive identity

PITTSBURGH — Pat Meyer grinned as he took a seat at the dais Saturday afternoon. As reporters approached the table, greeting the Steelers offensive line coach as they placed their recorders in front of him, Meyer chuckled and told one, “Christmas came early.”

Indeed it did, as general manager Omar Khan added three new offensive linemen to Meyer’s line with three of the team’s first five picks of the 2024 NFL draft, marking the first time the Steelers have taken three offensive linemen in the first four rounds in the common draft era (since 1967).

Pittsburgh’s latest draft class is the clearest example yet of the team’s commitment to building from the trenches out, continuing the effort with an infusion of linemen the team hopes will set the offensive tone for years to come.

“I’ve said it from the beginning. The offensive line, defensive line, those are big priorities — the big men,” Khan said after drafting offensive tackle Troy Fautanu with the No. 20 overall pick. “That’s where it starts, right? We want to be a physical football team, and it’s got to start up there.”

It’s also no coincidence that the Steelers’ investment in the offensive line coincided with the addition of Andy Weidl, who joined the team as the vice president of player personnel from the Eagles, where he helped construct an offensive line that won two NFC East championships and Super Bowl LII.

In addition to drafting Fautanu, the Steelers selected West Virginia center Zach Frazier with the No. 51 pick and guard Mason McCormick at No. 119. Not only do all three possess versatility, but they all approach their positions with the physicality and tenacity that’s a hallmark of Pittsburgh football.

“Their attitude and their play style,” Meyer said about what made the lineman attractive draft picks. “I don’t want to say they’re not pretty players, all that. It’s just all three of ’em have those qualities that you really like, especially at the Steelers. You talk about guys that are tough, that love ball, that are just fanatics about it. All three of those guys have those kinds of traits that we are really looking for here over the last couple of years.”

Because the Steelers released starting center Mason Cole before free agency, Frazier has the clearest path to a starting job, but Fautanu will likely push for a starting tackle job, either supplanting Dan Moore Jr. at left tackle or slotting in to right if the team moves 2023 first-round pick Broderick Jones to the left side.

In their college careers, Frazier started 45 games, while Fautanu started 31. That experience was attractive to the Steelers in the evaluation process.

“We are looking for guys with talent, obviously,” Tomlin said. “Oftentimes that talent is coupled with experience. It’s good to have a group that are mature as players and as people, and I think that’s reflective of the collective. All that means, we should expect those guys to have a high floor and maybe have a good presentation of what they’re capable of early, and for that, we’re excited.”

McCormick, a four-year starter at South Dakota State, projects as a backup guard for now with the team returning starting guards James Daniels and Isaac Seumalo. But both Daniels and Moore are scheduled to be free agents after the 2024 season.

“It was a strong offensive line group,” Tomlin said. “We’ve talked plenty of times about how we feel about the importance of the offensive line, and we got through Day 1 … and even in the fourth round when we had a chance to get Mason McCormick, he’s a guy that we had rated really high up there, and we have a couple players at the position who are in the last year of their contracts, felt it was important to address it if he was there. And we did.”

Even if all three rookies don’t start right away, the trio figures to pair with Jones, who replaced Chukwuma Okorafor in the starting lineup midway through the 2023 season, and Seumalo to form a foundational offensive line core. The Steelers also have 2023 seventh-round pick Spencer Anderson, who spent the season on the 53-man roster and appeared in eight regular-season games on special teams.

Of that group, Seumalo is the oldest and most experienced by a wide margin. At 30 years old with nine years of NFL experience under his belt, Seumalo is eight years older than Jones and Frazier and seven years older than Fautanu, McCormick and Anderson.

Though typically quiet, Seumalo has a reputation for building a relationship with younger players. Seumalo met Fautanu on his official pre-draft visit and was among the first to reach out to the first-round pick after his selection last Thursday night.

Even with the growing pains that will inevitably come with young offensive linemen adjusting to the NFL, there’s a benefit to a young group coming in together — especially with a ready-made mentor in Seumalo, who was part of the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII squad.

“I think the pieces are there to have a good core group of guys for a long period of time, and I think at offensive line, it’s important to build chemistry with the guys next to you,” Frazier said. “That’s kind of how it was with me at West Virginia. We had the same group of guys for basically three years, and by my senior year last year, we were all pretty tight and kind of knew what each other were thinking.”

The Steelers have had mixed results grouping young linemen. From 2009 to 2012, the Steelers added three offensive linemen who were mainstays up front for a decade and wound up starting 69 of a possible 115 games together for the Steelers. Ramon Foster joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 2009 and became a full-time starter in 2011. In 2010 and 2011, the Steelers used first-round picks on two offensive linemen: center Maurkice Pouncey and guard David DeCastro. Each earned two All-Pro selections, while Pouncey was selected to nine Pro Bowls and DeCastro was named to six.

From 2016 to 2020, the offensive combo of Foster, Pouncey, DeCastro, Al Villanueva and Matt Feiler started 21 games together, tied for the fourth most by any five-man O-line combination in that span. Foster retired following the 2019 season, and Pouncey and DeCastro finished their careers a year later.

Finding the next group of offensive linemen to replace them proved as challenging as finding the next franchise quarterback. The Steelers tried to address the line in 2020 with fourth-round pick Kevin Dotson and added Kendrick Green and Moore a year later in the second and third rounds, respectively. But after Green’s ill-fated stint at center and Dotson’s inconsistency, both were traded last fall, making Moore the last man standing as he enters the final year of his contract. In that time, the Steelers also went through two offensive line coaches in Shaun Sarrett and Adrian Klemm.

But since hiring Meyer in 2022, the Steelers’ O-line has shown improvement. The team’s blocking win rates increased significantly from 2021 to 2022, with the pass block win rate going from 49% (31st) to 65% (seventh) and the run block win rate from 67% (30th) to 72% (15th). The 2023 numbers regressed to 58% (17th) and 71% (11th) but were still better than 2021.

With the hire of offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, the Steelers want even more improvement in the line this year as Smith implements an offense that’s at its best when it builds off a strong ground game. And by continuing to invest so heavily in the position, they’re on track to do just that.

ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this story.