The Pittsburgh Steelers enter this NFL season with great promise, relatively speaking. While their rabid fanbase firmly believes this will be the year T.J. Watt finally wins his first playoff game, everyone outside of Western Pennsylvania is questioning if the Steelers did enough to make it back to the AFC playoffs this season. It will be close anyway, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
One of the areas where I have concerns about this team is along the offensive line. While I still have high hope on players like center Zach Frazier and right tackle Troy Fautanu, both guard spots and left tackle could be better. This includes my Dawg out at left tackle in former Georgia star Broderick Jones. Factor in guard Isaac Seumalo not coming into camp healthy, and this unit may have issues.
In Brooke Pryor's latest intel from Steelers camp for ESPN, she revealed that Jones left Sunday's practice a bit early with a soft-tissue injury that has been called day-to-day. Jones has played on both sides of the offensive line in his NFL career, but he has not achieved anywhere near the success he was expected to have coming out of UGA. It has been Dylan Cook and Calvin Anderson stepping up.
Cook is behind Jones at left tackle on the depth chart, while Anderson is seen more as a swing guy.
Offensive line issues could be a yearlong struggle for Pittsburgh Steelers
If the Steelers are to overcome this, these handful of things need to happen. The offensive line must grow as a unit to play the best football it can for its run-first offensive coordinator in one Arthur Smith. Pittsburgh's defense will still need to carry the team again, while the offense figures out what it can and cannot do in the passing game with Rodgers under center. He needs to lean on the ground game.
Pittsburgh has never had a losing season under head coach Mike Tomlin's watch. While it will be close, the Steelers do not have anywhere near as high of a ceiling as they think they do. If this team wins 11 games and reaches the playoffs, they could win a postseason game or two, and maybe make it to the conference title bout. Crazier things have happened before, but I do not sense a Super Bowl...
Ultimately, I just have a hard time seeing a 40-something quarterback who has never played with this team before be able to overcome some of the offensive issues at hand. At times, I do expect for Rodgers to play well, but he has not been a great player in about three years. His two-year run with the New York Jets was disastrous. He could go out on a high note, but he will only have one ring.
In a way, Jones' growth as a professional feels like the lynchpin for how the Steelers' season might go.