With NFL training camp underway across the league, I am going to do my best to remove any preconceived notions I have about each team. This is a new year and a new season, folks. Impress me, all 32 teams in the league. That being said, there will always be cracks in the foundation of even the most stable of franchises. I am talking about you, Pittsburgh Steelers, and your bad offensive line.
I wrote about this earlier in the month, and I did not see the Steelers' front-five rated all that highly at anything while doing my research. This always has been, and may always will be, a defensive-minded organization. However, any injury to a big ugly in the trenches will be compounded due to a lack of depth. With left guard Isaac Seumalo dealing with a soft-tissue injury, it only proves my point.
Mike Tomlin has confidence up front despite Steelers early issues
Head coach Mike Tomlin says he has a lot of confidence in Spencer Anderson filling in for Seumalo.
“Certainly I’m comfortable with Spence. Isaac didn’t get a lot of work in the spring and Spence did and Spence has played a lot of ball for us here in recent years, particularly at this position, and so no real angst in regards to that discussion.”
While everybody else was healthy enough to participate in the Steelers' pre-camp physicals that happened on Wednesday, Seumalo being out is less than ideal. Anderson did get plenty of playing experience last year by playing in all 17 games and making four starts with Seumalo being out near the start of the year. However, he is only a former seventh-round pick out of Maryland in year three.
Looking at the Steelers' depth chart, who all is going to step up to help keep Aaron Rodgers upright?
Offensive line depth could be a yearlong issue for the Pittsburgh Steelers
For the sake of being positive, I am still quite bullish on second-year center Zach Frazier, as well as former first-rounder in right tackle Troy Fautanu, who is also in year two. For as much as I want to believe in my Dawg Broderick Jones, his NFL career has largely been a constant baptism by fire. As far as the guard spots are concerned, Mason McCormick will be leaned on even more with this injury.
I may not root for a winning NFL franchise, but I know what winning football looks like. There are a lot of things the Steelers do well organizationally. Getting after the passer is chief among them. However, it is quite difficult for any team in football to win big consistently on Sundays and into the postseason if they are not strong on both sides of the trenches. The Steelers' offensive line does not measure up.
The good news is this will be the second season with Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator. He may have been painfully frustrating to watch unravel on the sidelines weekly leading the Atlanta Falcons, but he is a former lineman himself and usually gets strong production in the ground game because of it. Linemen want to play for this guy. As for Rodgers, he may be old, but he will always be an ad-libber.
That tells me that the passing game could be a bigger part of this team, mostly out of necessity here.