Have you been as captivated as everyone else has been in regards to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Quarterback competition? Have you been glued to your phone waiting for the hottest take? Strongest opinion? Or new nugget of information on whether it will be Mitchell Trubisky, Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph? If you fall into those categories then I have news for you. You’ve been doing it wrong all along. Forget the quarterbacks in Pittsburgh, what you should have been much more concerned with is the offensive line.
This hasn’t exactly been a secret. For the last two years the Steelers have largely ignored their offensive line in the Draft in the hopes that previous draft picks and middling free agents would develop and get the job done. None of us should be surprised by the fact that for the third year running this offensive line looks like it has the previous two years. In fact, you could argue the entire offense looks almost exactly like it did the last two years as well.
Whether you like Dan Orlovsky or not doesn’t matter here because he is 100% correct. No one is going to suggest that Trubisky ot Pickett or Rudolph is going to lead the Steelers to the Super Bowl this year if anyone should have that idea, forget it being about them. This is about the guys in front of them.
On Tuesday, the Steelers will need to trim their roster to 53 and I won’t be one bit surprised to see Kendrick Green on that list. I can’t fault the effort and commitment of the young man one bit but he’s completely over-matched right now at guard. And who is the guy largely responsible for bringing Green here? That’s Adrian Klemm who left mid-season in 2021 to coach the O-Line at Oregon. With Klemm gone and former General Manager Kevin Colbert largely out of the picture, why keep him?
Dan Moore has largely regressed since being forced into a starting role last season. He served up two holding penalties Sunday against Detroit and could have been called for a couple more. Because there aren’t exactly any ‘all-pro left tackles’ waiting to be cut this week Moore will likely hang on. Both Mason Cole and James Daniels, the two “big free agent signings” have been largely underwhelming while Chuks Okorafor has probably been the most consistent of the bunch. But don’t dismiss one other thing here…
For the third straight season the Steelers are dealing with a new position coach. If we are going to say that quarterbacks often struggle when coordinators change then the same has to be said for OL Coaches too. I won’t be surprised to see Pat Meyer gone after this season and that’s not good for anyone unless you can truly get someone with a top notch pedigree. Mike Munchak isn’t walking through the South side doors anytime soon however.
For all of the attention paid to the quarterbacks, they really haven’t been the story. Yes, they have to play well in order to have a chance at success, but the real focus of our angst should have been the big uglies up front and that’s exactly what they’ve been, ugly.
Feature Image courtesy post-gazette.com
