Steelers offensive line ranked near the bottom of the league entering 2021

The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line really struggled in 2020. Here’s why Pro Football Focus has them ranked near the bottom of the league this year.

The 2020 season started off quite well for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Defensively, the team picked up right where they left off after their dominant performance in 2019, while the offense was looking much better. Though the first five games of the season, Mike Tomlin’s team was averaging over 136 yards per game on the ground.

However, things took a turn for the worse rather quickly. Pittsburgh rushing attack quickly began to diminish and Ben Roethlisberger was forced to get the ball out of his hands very fast in true pass sets. By the end of the season, this offense was averaging under 20 points per game, and there was no threat to run the ball whatsoever.

When it came time for Steve Palazzolo of Pro Football Focus to rank every teams’ offensive line entering the 2021 season, it wasn’t a surprise to see that Pittsburgh was ranked near the bottom of the league. Palazzolo had Pittsburgh’s OL unit ranked 29th out of 32 teams – a less-than-desirable position. Here’s some of what Palazzolo had to say:

"Chukwuma Okorafor moves from right to left tackle after grading out at 57.4 overall last season, ranking 74th out of 84 qualifying tackles. It was Okorafor’s first year as a starter, and while we’ve seen linemen make jumps in Years 3 or 4, he needs to take big strides this season.The right tackle spot is manned by Zach Banner, who has shown power in the run game despite seeing just 302 snaps since entering the league in 2017. Banner has proven to be below average in pass protection during his limited time as a pro.Former starting center Maurkice Pouncey retired, and while his on-field play has generally underwhelmed compared to his hype, he did provide stability up front for the Steelers. J.C. Hassenauer and third-rounder Kendrick Green will compete for the starting spot. Hassenauer graded out at 57.7 overall on 303 snaps last season, while Green ranked near the top of the draft class in both positively and negatively graded run blocks over the past two years."

Palazzolo expanded on his explanation by saying that David DeCastro took a step back in 2020, while Kevin Dotson looked impressive as a rookie. Still, his overall assessment of this unit entering the 2021 season is not good. It’s not hard to see why he thinks so.

After really struggling as a unit in 2020, some would argue that this line is now even less talented in 2021. Though Pittsburgh brought in a couple of high-upside players who could help in Kendrick Green and Dan Moore Jr., we can’t expect them to be dominant from the gate, and it could be a little while before either make their impact felt with this unit. In addition, the team lost three starters last year in Alejandro Villanueva, Matt Feiler, and Maurkice Pouncey.

How will Steelers OL look in 2021?

Though this unit is very much unproven, I think there’s a chance that this group, collectively, could look like a better unit in 2021. While the team did lose two interior starters in Feiler and Pouncey, most fans agree that Kevin Dotson would be an upgrade over Feiler at this point, as the rookie played remarkably well in limited action last season.

Additionally, Pouncey was detrimental to the team over the past two seasons, and it’s not hard to believe that Green or B.J. Finney could replace him this year. With a few changes and David DeCastro finally healthy, it’s reasonable to believe that the interior offensive line may actually improve a bit in 2021.

The offensive tackles are a different story. Though many fans brush off Alejandro Villanueva as just another guy, it would be unwise to think that the unproven Chukwuma Okorafor will be an improvement over the two-time Pro Bowler in 2021. While Villanueva may not have gotten much push in the run game, he was still a solid pass protector last season.

Okorafor, on the other hand, struggled in nearly every facet of the game. Now making the switch from right tackle to left tackle, he could prove to struggle even more in 2021, as he will be manning one of the most important positions in all of football. In addition to this, Zach Banner is a complete projection, and he has just two NFL starts by the age of 27.

I do believe, however, that Matt Canada’s new-look offense could mask some of the deficiencies on the offensive line. His offense (that will likely include much more play-action and pre-snap motion) could keep the defense guessing and give this offensive line an advantage it didn’t have just a season ago.

At the end of the day, we truly need to take a wait-and-see approach before we jump to any conclusions here, and perhaps this unit will be much better than anyone expects. Still, it doesn’t look assuring so far that the Steelers will have a top offensive line in 2021.