Steelers Analysis Steelers News
Mike Tomlin Won’t Commit to Steelers Incumbent Offensive Line Starters
PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Pittsburgh Steelers have five offensive linemen on their 2025 roster that at one point, were starters for the team during the 2024 season.
Left guard Isaac Seumalo has been entrenched in his role. Center Zach Frazier and right guard Mason McCormick took over their positions as rookies last year after injuries to veterans ahead of them on the depth chart.
At tackle, Broderick Jones is moving to left tackle after a season and a half as the starter at right tackle. On the right, Troy Fautanu will return from a pair of knee injuries that limited him to one game in 2024.
That’s five players, all that were starters at some point last season, all at the top of the depth chart right now as the Steelers head into the second phase of the 2025 offseason.
So those are their starters for this season, right? Not so fast.
“I feel like we have some guys that are certainly capable of the role,” head coach Mike Tomlin said at the NFL owners meetings this week. “But to say that as I sit here today, would be untrue. I don’t know who I’m going to end up with or who I’m going to be in position to consider.”
There is certainly a notable lack of depth on the unit. The team has just three experienced backup offensive linemen: center Ryan McCollum, guard/tackle Spencer Anderson and guard Lecitus Smith. None of those are likely to be pushing the first five for a starting role this season.
The Steelers will almost certainly add a veteran tackle to the mix, especially considering the fact that Fautanu has played all of one NFL game and Jones will be playing a new position in 2025.
It’s probably also not a fait accompli that McCormick will be the starter at right guard. Frazier took over his spot as a highly-touted second rounder who was expected to eventually start as a rookie anyway, and he was one of the better centers in the league as a rookie.
McCormick started third on the depth chart, and no one had any reason to think the fourth-rounder from South Dakota State was going to play as a rookie. He greatly exceeded expectations, but it’s not impossible to imagine the team adding a higher-profile guard to the mix, and giving McCormick the redshirt year that was envisioned for him in 2024, before letting him take over for Seumalo at left guard after his contract expires in 2026.
But that begs the question — who?
The Steelers have not been active at all in looking for offensive linemen in the early rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft. The only reported formal combine interview they had was with William & Mary tackle Charles Grant. Assistant offensive line coach Isaac Williams was at his pro day. The only pro day offensive line coach Pat Meyer attended was next door at Pitt, where tackle Branson Taylor is a likely undrafted free agent.
The only offensive linemen to come to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex so far has been West Virginia tackle Wyatt Milum, an exempt visitor that doesn’t count against the team’s 30-visit maximum.
Both Grant and Milum are considered likely third-round draft picks and neither would be a lock to start over McCormick, though they certainly could be in consideration to compete for a job.
But compared to the level of interest at positions like cornerback and wide receiver, it’s pretty clear that offensive line is not a Steelers draft priority.
There are a few players left on the free agent market, if the Steelers want to make a post-draft signing so that it won’t count against the comp pick formula.
Former Arizona Cardinals starter Will Hernandez, who missed most of 2024 with an ACL injury, remains a free agent. Shaq Mason, who has been a 10-year starter with the New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans, is also still on the market. Brandon Scherff will be 34 this season, but the five-time Pro Bowler has been a reliable starter for the Jacksonville Jaguars the last three seasons.
It’s not necessarily a world-beating group, but any of those players would be likely to push McCormick down the depth chart.
The Steelers have spent a lot of draft capital over the last two seasons in an effort to rebuild their offensive line, but that has yet to result in above-average line play overall, and it doesn’t seem that the team is satisfied to just let that process play out without adding some insurance to their investment. Stay tuned.