Last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers line was awful. There’s no getting around it. The unit lacked focus, leadership and physicality. It forced the passing game to become one-dimensional and the run game to be an uphill climb. But new offensive line coach Pat Meyer is working with this young group in training camp to up the agression and have taken it back to fundamentals.
But when you have to take so many steps backwards in terms of the basics, it slows down the overall progression of the line and this is something Meyer is seeing.
It sounds completely ridiculous to think highly-skilled, highly-paid professional athletes wouldn’t already have the basic concepts mastered but this is the challenge Meyer and the Steelers coaches are facing. With four of the five starting spots locked in, it is a matter of how quickly the offensive line can master and apply the concepts Meyer is teaching them.
Three of the five members of the Steelers 2021 starting offensive line, which on paper doesn’t sound like a solid strategy. Dan Moore and Chuks Okorafor are the starting tackles and either Kendrick Green or Kevin Dotson will start at left guard. Only James Daniels and Mason Cole will be newcomers with Daniels at right guard and Cole at center. Both were signed as free agents.
Pittsburgh’s offensive line was far too passive last season and frankly got pushed around on a weekly basis. No matter how much we want to talk about who will be playing quarterback this season, if the offensive line hasn’t improved, it really isn’t going to matter.
