One of the keys to the Steelers’ 2025 season will be the improvement of the team’s young offensive line.
In the past two years, the Steelers have selected offensive linemen Broderick Jones, Spencer Anderson, Troy Fautanu, Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick in the draft.
All are 24 or younger, with Jones and Frazier being the youngest at 23.
With Dan Moore scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent when the new league year begins March 12, there is a good chance that at least four of the offensive linemen the Steelers have selected in the past two drafts will have a chance to start next season, with veteran guard Isaac Seumalo being the fifth starter.
With so many young players in that group, it’s not surprising that there were some struggles in 2024. In fact, the Steelers had four different players – Frazier, Fautanu, Anderson and McCormick – make their first career NFL starts during the first six weeks of the season.
“We absorbed a lot of attrition during the course of the journey,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said at the end of the season. “We ended up playing a lot of young people. They responded in a real positive way, but maybe they fatigued, mentally and physically.”
There’s also the possibility that as opposing teams saw more on tape of the young players, they developed a plan of attack to take advantage of some of the things they didn’t do quite as well. Oftentimes for young players, the adjustments to the adjustments that opponents make after seeing them play help determine their long-term success.
But one of the biggest jumps a player makes in his career is from his first NFL season to his second. That is largely because the player now knows what to expect from the grind of an NFL season and how to prepare his body for that.
It’s one of the biggest reasons for their improvement. But beyond that, they also get stronger and are better mentally prepared because they aren’t learning a new scheme.
Players are allowed to get better from year to year. In fact, if they aren’t improving, they probably won’t be around very long.
Given the age of the group as a whole, the Steelers should benefit from that up front on their offensive line in 2025.
“Hopefully the offensive line is a strength going into the future,” team president Art Rooney II said last week.
There’s good reason to believe that will be the case.
• One of the public misconceptions regarding the NFL is what constitutes a long-term plan. It’s different in the NFL than it is in other spots, largely because careers are so short.
Look at the NFL Draft as an example.
NFL teams sign their rookie draft class to four-year contracts per the Collective Bargaining Agreement. For first-round draft picks, the teams get a fifth-year option, but because of the new CBA signed in 2020, even that has changed.
Given how fifth-year options are now tied to the top average salaries at each respective position instead of draft position, fewer fifth-year options are now picked up than prior to the signing of the new CBA. For the 2021 draft class, for example, just 17 of the 32 players selected in the first round had their option picked up. Under the old CBA option rules, the number of fifth-year options exercised was usually around 20 or more.
And over the past few years under the new CBA, the majority of free agent contracts signed have been of the shorter variety as opposed to the four- and five-year deals that used to be the norm.
Two years in the NFL is now a long time. Three seasons is almost an eternity. Four is a generation.
Consider the Steelers’ offensive line as an example.
In 2021, the Steelers’ starting offensive line from left to right was Moore, Kevin Dotson, Kendrick Green, Trai Turner and Chuks Okorafor.
Moore was the only one of those players still with the team in 2024 and is now a potential unrestricted free agent.
Things can change rather quickly.
Star players obviously stick with their respective teams longer, but on average, NFL rosters see a turnover of 40 percent from year to year. So, a long-term plan in the NFL is really a two-year plan.
• With the Super Bowl now complete, the rush toward the 2025 season now begins in earnest for all teams. In two weeks, the NFL will descend upon Indianapolis for the annual Scouting Combine.
The league also will officially announce the 2025 salary cap at some point during the next couple of weeks, as well.
March 10, the NFL’s legal tampering period begins with the new league year starting March 12. All teams must be salary cap compliant by that point and free agency then begins.
The Steelers currently have 22 players set to become unrestricted free agents, including several starters, running back Najee Harris, Moore, wide receiver Van Jefferson, guard James Daniels, linebacker Elandon Roberts and cornerback Donte Jackson among them.
That number also includes all three quarterbacks, Russell Wison, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen, who were on the roster in 2024.
They also have a restricted free agent in running back Jaylen Warren.
Some of those players will obviously be re-signed by the team. But on average, an NFL roster sees about 20 or so new players from year to year.
That’s why one season isn’t a carry over into the next. When 40 percent of the roster is different, it’s just not the same team.
• Some people were upset that Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson was voted first-team All-Pro at quarterback, but Buffalo’s Josh Allen beat him in the voting for NFL MVP.
The two things are not one and the same.
A player can be first-team All-Pro and not be the most valuable player in the league.
It’s actually similar to how the Steelers players voted for their team MVP in 2024. Cam Heyward and Chris Boswell both were named first-team All-Pro by the group of people who vote for those awards. T.J. Watt was voted second-team All-Pro.
But when it came time to tabulate the votes for team MVP, Watt’s teammates chose him over Heyward and Boswell. Heyward and Boswell both would have been fine choices, as well, but Watt’s teammates felt he was the more valuable player.
• Dale Lolley is co-host of “SNR Drive” on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
By the same token, even though Allen’s numbers weren’t quite up to par with those of Jackson, the league’s voters felt Allen was more valuable or important to his team’s success.
Jackson had the better numbers. Allen was more valuable. It’s not that hard to understand.
• Concussions decreased 17 percent in the NFL in 2024 compared to 2023 and were down 12 percent from the average from 2021 to 2023.
The totals, which include concussions suffered in the preseason and regular season, is an all-time low since the league began tracking head injuries in 2015.
Use of the Dynamic Kickoff Rule reduced concussions on kickoffs 43 percent. Returns also increased 57 percent from a historic low in 2023. There were seven kick returns for touchdowns, the most since the 2021 season.
There also were seven returns for touchdowns in 2024 after there were just two in 2023.
It’s not a perfect solution. The new kickoff rule isn’t wildly exciting. And it’s still so different that there’s still a lot of analysis that needs to be done.
