The Two Things the Steelers Need Most From Training Camp
Does the sun seem to be shining a little brighter today? Did you wake up feeling like your problems are a little less important? Like suddenly everything is going to be ok? Football season is back, and the stairway to seven begins, yet again, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Steelers players and staff reported to Saint Vincent College for the team’s 2025 training camp, and bless the heavens above we don’t have any holdouts to waste time talking about. Shoutout to Omar Khan and the front office for getting the T.J. Watt deal done and not letting the issue fester. The entire team reported to camp and is singularly focused on getting better and building camaraderie, which I think is the goal for all 32 NFL GMs going into training camp, so he succeeded in that regard.
I haven’t even had time to get this piece of content out into the world before training camp injury news from other teams has hit my twitter timeline; most notably Justin Fields’ toe and Artie Burns’ ACL. As is the case with every training camp and preseason, the number one most important thing for every team in the league, especially a team as old as the Steelers (2nd oldest behind the Commanders), is that we come out of this thing healthy. The team has made clear their intentions to be a contender in 2025, and in order for that to happen, we’re going to need a shot of luck to avoid the injury bug. Prayers to the lads at camp…let’s try and stay clean.
With the obvious out the way, there are so many interesting storylines this training camp cycle, and I’ll dive into all of that over the next few weeks. For the sake of this post, there’s one position group whose success, or lack thereof, will really sway the team’s success heavily in one direction, in my opinion, and I think it’s paramount that they have an extremely productive camp together. Of course, I’m talking about the offensive line.
Projected Starters:
LT Broderick Jones, LG Isaac Seumalo, C Zach Frazier, RG Mason McCormick, and RT Troy Fautanu.
With Troy Fautanu back in the fold after missing, basically, the entirety of his rookie campaign with a knee issue, the perception is that this group should be largely improved. Dan Moore Jr. got a lot of money to play elsewhere (addition by subtraction kinda money) and we also lost James Daniels to free agency. Mason McCormick stepped in for the injured Daniels last year and played with a hell of an edge, although I’m going to need to see more than that from him in 2025 before I can say I’m confident in him as a starter.
Zach Frazier, on the other hand, is not someone I have any concern for as a starter. Attrition forced Frazier to step in much earlier than the coaching staff expected last year, but I’m certain they’re fine with that in hindsight. I’m no offensive line guru, but when you’ve watched enough football, you can tell when a guy is simply cut from a different cloth, and Zach Frazier is that. He’s already a consensus top-5 center in the league based on everything I’ve read, and he will only be 24 years old next month. The future’s bright in that spot.
Yinz know where I’m going next, though. There’s a 2023 first-round draft pick by the name of Broderick Jones that, to this point, has been a failed experiment. There was hope for a big 2024 campaign for him after we took Fautanu last year, allowing him to move to what many perceive as his more “natural” left tackle spot as opposed to right. Of course, Fautanu’s early-season injury shot those plans down quickly, and besides that, I’m not sure that a move to the left side is going to fix the issues that Broderick Jones has. Perhaps if we had a fresh voice for that group I’d be more inclined to have a little faith, but the team is running it back with Pat Meyer as the offensive line coach. Meyer is extremely respected in NFL circles and a hell of a football mind by all accounts, but I have seen some horrible things from the offensive line under his leadership (see Dan Moore and Broderick Jones pulling across each other against the Ravens last season). I’m just not sure that Meyer is the right voice to squeeze all the potential out of Broderick Jones right now. And if the mental breakdowns from Jones are going to continue to be as bad as the one I just mentioned, and they are often THAT bad, then this offensive line is going to be average and so is our football team. If he moves to his “natural” left side and shows improvement, then I think this can be a top-10-ish unit and a very scary football team to play in December and January. Training camp will be our first glimpse into whether or not we can realistically expect improvement, and I’m eager to find out.
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