Predicting which Steelers OL positions have upgraded and downgraded in 2021

Right guard: Neutral

This one is so hard to call. David DeCastro at his best would trump Trai Turner every day of the week. Unfortunately, DeCastro far from played his best football in 2020, and now it’s very clear as to why. In addition to dealing with a knee injury that kept him out of a few games early in the season, the former All-Pro guard also has a serious ankle issue that could cause him to retire after being released by the Steelers.

At the same time, Turner hasn’t been healthy either. Though he made five straight Pro Bowls from 2015 to 2019, he hasn’t played a full 16-game season in the past four years, and his Pro Football Focus Grade has gotten progressively worse in each season.

Despite grading out as one of the worst guards in football last year, Turner deserves a little grace as he was battling through both injuries and COVID-19 last year.

Assuming he’s mostly healthy this year, this would be a toss-up to who is better between Turner or an aging and ailing David DeCastro. If Turner can finally stay healthy and go a whole season without getting banged up, he has the potential to be even better for the Steelers than DeCastro was in 2020. However, I think it’s a relatively safe bet to assume that we will get similar performance out of Turner that we saw in DeCastro last season.