Predicting which Steelers OL positions have upgraded and downgraded in 2021

Right tackle: Upgrade

I know some fans and media personnel want to dub Zach Banner as the next great free agent signing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he is still very much a mystery. Though the big offensive re-tooled his body on his third NFL team since joining the league, he has just 2 NFL starts by the age of 27 – something that should be concerning to everybody.

In addition, Banner really wasn’t all that impressive in his lone start last year against the Giants up until suffering an ACL tear late in the game. Though this is just a one-game sample size, the fact that we don’t have much film to go off is a concern in itself.

On top of all of this, we have to hope that Banner is somehow a better player than the one we saw before his season-ending injury. Fortunately, the bar is set pretty low right now, as it shouldn’t be overly difficult to outperform Chukwuma Okorafor – one of the worst right tackles in the league in 2020. I think Banner will be an upgrade here, but it’s incredibly difficult to predict how much.

Though I project more positions to upgrade than to downgrade this year, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the line as a unit will be better overall. Much of that will depend on the chemistry these players develop and how they mesh in Adrian Klemm’s new blocking scheme. It will be interesting to see if this can be an improved unit despite all of the turnover this offseason.