The Pittsburgh Steelers will report to Saint Vincent College this month with a nearly new offensive line. Troy Fautanu, a right tackle for his first two professional seasons, has been working at left tackle through the spring, with Mason McCormick sliding from right guard to left guard beside him, as ESPN’s Brooke Pryor reported from OTAs. Center Zach Frazier is the only lineman positioned to start where he did a year ago; the right side is an open competition among first-round rookie Max Iheanachor, Spencer Anderson and Dylan Cook.
The shuffle is part choice and part necessity. Isaac Seumalo departed in free agency, and Broderick Jones — the 2023 first-round pick who started at left tackle before a season-ending neck injury and spinal fusion surgery — has no timeline for a return. Pittsburgh declined his fifth-year option and spent this year’s first-round pick on Iheanachor. Head coach Mike McCarthy, in his first season here, told reporters the priority was plain: “I just really wanted to get that left side set,” he said, to protect the blind side of 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers.
My read: this is the roster decision the Steelers’ season actually turns on, more than anything at quarterback. The organizational standard in Pittsburgh has always been built from the line out, and continuity is the quiet ingredient in every good line the franchise has fielded. This group has almost none. McCormick must relearn which shoulder his center is on. Fautanu hasn’t taken a left-handed stance since his pre-draft training, and his college left tackle work at Washington came in front of a left-handed quarterback, meaning he has never truly protected a blind side. His own view, to Pryor, was refreshingly unsentimental: “I think I got to block the guy regardless.”
That attitude is the right one, and line coach James Campen’s emphasis on adaptability is the right plan for a group this young. But a 42-year-old quarterback does not absorb a learning curve the way a 25-year-old does, and the schedule will not wait for chemistry. The first padded practice at Latrobe is Aug. 3. That is when phrases like “position flexibility” stop being philosophy and start being either protection or a problem. The standard here has never graded intentions.
