Unpopular Opinion: The Steelers offensive line is in good shape for 2025

When the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the dreaded long offseason, there are plenty of ideas to debate. As part of the triumphant trio on the Steelers Preview podcast, I’ve been known to often give a “Dave answer“ to various things as I often like to argue both sides of an issue. With this in mind, a new weekly segment has been born… Unpopular opinion.

There are plenty of arguments both for and against the Pittsburgh Steelers that might not go along with the majority of fans. Oftentimes I believe in these arguments, while other times I simply like to pose a counter argument for ones that are taking it too much to the extreme. For this reason, I’m going to offer some points about the Pittsburgh Steelers that go against the general fan narrative, or at least how I have heard things.

Next up is an opinion from John S. about the Steelers offensive line…

The Steelers offensive line is in good shape for 2025

As many Steelers fans know, their fellow Steelers fans like to complain a lot. It’s not that every Steelers fan complains about everything, but it’s more that a portion, no matter how small, of the fan base complains about different things to where it’s all pretty much covered. It doesn’t mean that all of them are wrong, but chances are they can’t all be right.

One place that I often see criticism is when it comes to the Steelers offensive line. Being someone who both played and coached the offensive line, there’s a special place in my heart for this position group and I often focus on them during the game when possible. The main way I do so, when I can, is watch a play, then rewind it and watch the blocking once I know what to play is. Understanding quality blocking is often difficult without knowing to play, that’s why I try to do this when watching a game live but I’m not always able to do so.

Getting back to the complaining, I think a lot of fans complain about the offensive line simply because they don’t know how to evaluate it. A player that’s done a bad job in the past will often have fans complaining about them after a game where they might have had the best game of their life. But since fans are used to a player not performing well, they just assume they didn’t do a very good job. It’s often the nature of the position.

When it comes to the 2025 offensive line for the Pittsburgh Steelers, there are many that think it’s in rough shape and this is one of the weaker spot of the team. But is it? There are plenty, much like John S. who gave the submission, that feel the Steelers are in really good shape when it comes to their offensive line. After all, they have two first round picks, a second round pick at center who has already established himself as one of the better players in the league at the position in just one season, a veteran coming off his first Pro Bowl selection (which really should have been the season before), and a fourth round pick coming off a rookie season where he was thrust into action and held up adequately.

There are a lot of questions as to whether or not the offensive line will hold up in 2025. There are many who still use the position group as a punching bag of criticism while others feel they are on the cusp of being a very solid unit.

Being on the doorstep of the beginning of the 2025 free agency period, the Steelers do not necessarily have to make a significant move on the offensive line. Even when the draft rolls around at the end of April, they don’t have to invest high capital in the position yet again.

But they could.

Even though the Steelers are losing their starting left tackle of the last four seasons in Dan Moore, there are some Steelers fans who don’t want to fully judge Broderick Jones on his future in the NFL until he has had ample opportunity to be the starting left tackle. While some Steeler fans are jumping the gun and already calling Jones a bust after only two seasons, this year will be an extremely pivotal year in his evaluation.

But as bad as jumping the gun is on Broderick Jones, I can’t believe some of the ridiculous comments I’ve heard about the “bust“ of Troy Fautanu. Seriously? The guy gets injured in practice and is out for the season ahead of Week 3 and that makes him a bust? The best evaluation of him is going to be in 2026, let alone what he does in 2025.

When looking at these two tackles, it doesn’t make sense for the Steelers to invest a lot of money in free agency or another high draft pick at the position. As much as I despise these words, because of the heavy investment of premium draft picks in both players the Steelers really do need to “see what they’ve got.“ Yes, they’ll need to add some depth behind them in one form or another. But I don’t expect it to be a flashy move.

When looking at the guard position, this is a place where the Steelers could make a move if they choose. Whether it’s free agency or a higher draft pick, the Steelers are not beyond the realm of being “upgradable“ at guard. Heck, everywhere is upgradable if an upgrade is possible. So if the Steelers upgrade one or both of their guard positions this year it would be a welcome move.

But once again, they don’t have to.

This is why the assessment of John S. that the offensive line is in “good shape“ is a fair assessment, although it is not the most popular opinion. The Steelers are not desperate for an upgrade and could simply run back four of the five players from the end of last season, kick Broderick Jones to the left side, and Troy Fautanu ultimately replaces Dan Moore. This combination, albeit in March, appears to be adequate and could potentially really make some big steps in 2025. It all comes down to the development of these young players.

So if the Steelers do not do anything significant on the offensive line through free agency or the draft, don’t be disappointed. Outside of numerous injuries, which is always the case with every NFL team every season when it comes to projecting their success, the Steelers are in good shape.

To hear the podcast further outlining this Unpopular Opinion, listen to the show in the player below: