The Cleveland Browns have had a terrific offensive line for a few years now. Here’s why the Steelers should follow suit to find success.
D’Ernest Johnson isn’t a name anybody in NFL media circles thought they would be talking about in any capacity. But here we are, four years into his career, and the Cleveland Browns running back was the talk of Thursday night football.
In 2018, Johnson entered the league as an undrafted free agent, and he found a home in Cleveland a year later in 2019. During his college Pro Day at USF, Johnson tested as an atrocious athlete — running a 4.81 40 yard dash to go with his 30.5” vertical, according to Relative Athletic Score.
However, Johnson was trending on social media thanks to his stellar performance against the Broncos on Thursday night football. Why do I bring this up? Because the Steelers need to take a page from Cleveland’s playbook.
There’s a reason D’Ernest Johnson just came out of nowhere as of late — he really isn’t a special football player like everyone would like to believe. Rather, he is playing with a brilliant offensive line coach and a team that has invested more draft capital, money, and resources into their offensive line than nearly any team in the league.
Across the board, the Browns are loaded with talent from left to right with Jedrick Wills, Joel Bitonio, JC Tretter, Wyatt Teller, and Jack Conklin. Between this group are two former first-round picks and two former second-round picks.
Steelers must start investing more into the OL
Not all of these players were drafted by the Browns, but they did were willing to go out and spend elite money knowing the value of a quality offensive line. The Steelers would be wise to follow suit.
Instead of choosing to invest in the trenches, Pittsburgh has spent much of their elite draft capital in recent years on players who don’t play near the line of scrimmage. In fact, it’s been over a decade since Kevin Colbert was willing to spend as much as a second-round pick on an offensive lineman. Additionally, he has spent just two third-round picks on the offensive line during this time.
While the Steelers young offensive line is made up of raw players with athletic upside, it takes so much more than that. It’s possible that a few of them could develop into long-term answers for this team, but that doesn’t mean that they are guaranteed to be even league average at their positions.
History tells us that in order to get elite offensive lineman, you almost always have to spend elite draft capital at the position — something the Steelers are apparently allergic to doing. While I think this team has come away with some respectable draft classes in recent years, they can’t expect the issues to disappear until they spend more resources on the offensive line.
There’s only one Bill Callahan in the NFL, and the Browns have some amazing talent. However, the Browns offense didn’t skip a beat without Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, and the fact that D’Ernest Johnson looks like an All-Pro behind Cleveland’s offensive line just goes to show why the Steelers have made a mistake ignoring the OL for so long.