5 moves Steelers must make to ensure future success
The Steelers have to add offensive linemen that can compete and start right away.
While many suspect the Steelers to add a tackle with the first pick of the draft, I don’t think that is where they should go here. If Ben retires this year I am guessing that Maurkice Pouncey will retire as well. Pouncey has said numerous times throughout his career that he wants to retire with Ben and with the large dip in his play this year I believe he is on his way out. It doesn’t help that there are already rumors of Pouncey being ready to hang it up even without Ben’s final decision on his own career.
That opens up the center position, and Josh Myers from Ohio State should be their first pick of the draft. He is the 38th ranked prospect by the Draft Network and for good reason. He is a big center and is extremely mobile for his size. The biggest knock on him is that he played with two high-level guards throughout college and that is the thing keeping him out of being a top 20 pick.
He immediately adds speed, and technique to the interior of the aging offensive line. Adding him to the group of Kevin Dotson and David Decastro would instantly shore up the middle of the offensive line until Decastro retires. He has the potential to be a multi-time All-pro and would instantly help in both run and pass protection from day one. The Steelers need to start rebuilding the offensive line and Myers is the player to build around.
Following the trend of drafting offensive linemen, I am going to gamble and say that the Steelers should spend their 2nd overall pick, which is the 48th in this draft, on a tackle from Clemson by the name of Jackson Carman. He is another big athletic prospect that will develop into a great tackle in the league as his technique sharpens up a bit. He is currently the 64th ranked prospect by the Draft Network and he has fallen a bit in rankings because of his technique. With a likely upgrade over Shaun Sarret as the offensive lineman coach developing technique shouldn’t be an issue when taking such a raw talent for the tackle spot.
His technique isn’t horrible by any means, but it’s bad enough to keep Carman out of the first round considering the crop of talent at the top of his position. He does play with an attitude and plays to his rather large size. The Steelers are going to want to run the ball better in 2021 and using their first 2 picks on offensive linemen that have fallen due to such a deep pool of pass rushers, quarterbacks, and wide receivers make this the perfect draft to fix most of its problems in the trenches in one swoop.
The Steelers will probably resign Matt Feiler or big Al, but if they get the chance to nab both of these prospects then they should let Feiler and Al walk. Going for youth and upside while saving money is the better move in this scenario when both have performed rather poorly in 2021. They’ll need to find depth on the offensive line probably through free agency but at this point, I can’t justify resigning either offensive linemen for anything other than continuity. I’d say, Feiler, as guards are usually cheaper, but Dotson has already outperformed him by an incredible margin just filling in for injury this year.