3 things Steelers must do to improve offensive line

The Pittsburgh Steelers must improve their O-line situation if they want to compete down the road.

While I am expecting the Steelers line to improve throughout the season, this is mostly due to the individuals that are in their 1st and second 2nd seasons age. I expect them to improve not only technically in their first 3 seasons but the mental mistakes and miscommunications to be cleaned up.

However, the rest of the offensive line shouldn’t be expected to improve much. With that being said here is what the Steelers can do in the meantime.

Chukwuma Okorafor shouldn’t continue to start

Let me be clear, I am not trying to dump on Chuks. He has shown so much upside dating back to his very first start against Denver dating back to 2018. Von Miller was held without a sack in the entirety of that game.

While Chuks received a lot of help in that contest from a still stout O-line he has been unable to make strides towards improving his floor. Unfortunately, he hasn’t shown anything in the run game and his pass protection is far too inconsistent to be considered a starter at this point.

That is where Joe Haeg comes in. While the line was far from perfect it looked better against the Packers than it has all season. The big change was Okorafor’s time in the concussion protocol. Haeg is far from a polished tackle at this point in his career, yet should be the starter going forward until Zach Banner is healthy and performing well enough to usurp him.

Haeg did better than expected against Preston Smith who is an otherworldy pass-rusher in today’s NFL. If he can do well enough in pass protection against a player of that caliber while being significantly better than Okorafor in run blocking to me there is little room for debate.