Let's hope the transition to a new quarterback goes smoother than the one to a new offensive line. The topics are intimately related, you know.
It has been years since a once-elite line began to age out, yet the Steelers reacted as if all five guys went AWOL in the middle of the night.
Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert butchered the transition in ways previously unimaginable, bottoming out last season. Which was a bad season to bottom out, considering they were charged with keeping a 39-year-old museum piece of a quarterback protected from harm or be forced to turn to Mason Rudolph.
Quick aside: If Rudolph is traded for a seventh-round pick, do the Steelers get to put a first-round grade on it?
Anyway, this is what Colbert and Tomlin's best thinking got them in 2021 ...
—An alleged rising star of a rookie line coach who fled in the middle of a playoff race.
—A rookie center who wasn't really a center and now might be a backup guard (still hard to believe this happened).
—A major offseason project that blew up when the presumed new left tackle was shifted back to right tackle just before the season (and don't tell me that was because of injuries; if Chuks Okorafor had taken to the premium position of left tackle, he would have stayed there no matter what).
—A rookie fourth-round pick protecting the museum piece's blind side.
—An assistant line coach Tomlin deemed "elite" leaving right after the season, seemingly not interested in applying for the job created by the guy who quit.
—A quarterback who again got rid of the ball faster than you can say "Ben," partly because his feet no longer moved but partly because his line couldn't pass block for any longer than that.
—An inability to get a yard or two when needed, often not even attempting to run the ball in such situations, despite all kinds of offseason noise about getting more "violent" up front.
—A running game that failed to finish higher than 25th for the fifth straight year, despite the presence of a talented rookie running back.
Other than that, things went well.
Think back to this time last year. Everything was going great, remember? Then David DeCastro suddenly retired, but new line coach Adrian Klemm was instilling toughness in the troops. Okorafor was adapting nicely, or so Klemm told us, to left tackle. Kendrick Green was going to be a bully of a rookie center.
Nobody thought too much about how the Steelers had passed up Creed Humphrey with the 55th pick of the draft, or how Humphrey would immediately become one of the NFL's best centers (and to be fair, Pat Freiermuth, taken 55th, looks like he will be a very good player).
You know what happened. It all fell apart. The Steelers again had one of the worst lines in the league.
All of which leads to a question: If the same people who've mangled the transition thus far were charged with this year's remake — and they were — why should we believe things are going to be appreciably better?
I mean, their best thinking this time around has them paying Chuks $10 million a year on a new deal (though they can extricate themselves after this season).
If "Steelers stability" is a thing — and a good thing — it sure doesn't apply to the offensive line. These guys go through coaches like the Cleveland Browns.
I'm not sure picking offensive line coaches is Tomlin's specialty. Other than Mike Munchak, who fell into the Steelers' laps, the past three have been Klemm (less than a full season), Shaun Sarrett (two years, now an assistant line coach with the Chargers) and Jack Bicknell Jr. (one year, now the line coach at North Carolina). Now it's Pat Meyer's turn.
By the way, Munchak admitted in a recent interview on 93.7 The Fan that he talked to the Steelers about returning this season after the Denver Broncos fired him. He wouldn't say where the conversation went or why nothing came of it, even though he is apparently willing to move east again and has great respect for Tomlin.
I'm not saying the line won't improve. It can't possibly be worse. I liked the signing of right guard James Daniels, assuming some of his pass-protection troubles were a product of playing in the Bears' offense. We'll see if Okorafor and Dan Moore Jr. (left tackle) can protect the flanks in an actual downfield passing game — where patterns take more than 0.4 seconds to unfold — and deliver some punch in the run game.
We'll also see if Kevin Dotson, coming off a rough sophomore season, can beat out Green at left guard, and if presumed new center Mason Cole is something more than starting 39 of 60 career games at two positions would suggest.
They aren't exactly the Hogs, but they have a chance to be OK, I guess.
And it would sure be nice if the new coach stayed till the last game.
