3 positions that deserve the most blame for Steelers embarrassing season

2. Steelers offensive line

Pittsburgh’s offensive line was pitiful this year. While many convinced themselves that this would be a better group without some of their aging veterans and with more athleticism and youth upfront, that proved to be anything but the case.

I was worried that the Steelers were going to have far too much turnover on the offensive line his year — the most they’ve had in a single offseason in my lifetime. I was right. Pittsburgh lost Maurkice Pouncey and David DeCastro to retirement while they allowed Alejandro Villanueva and Matt Feiler to leave via free agency.

While none of these players are spectacular by themselves, Pittsburgh found out just how important continuity and experience were this offseason. In their places, the team went with Trai Turner, Kevin Dotson (who missed much of the season), and two rookies in Kendrick Green and Dan Moore. This was a costly mistake.

Though Dotson and Moore showed promise this year, Turner was routinely beat with speed and has already seen his best years, while Green was benched late in the year for J.C. Hassenauer. This group was responsible for being among the worst in the league in both pass protection and run blocking, and the Steelers will have to make some major investments here in 2022.