Though the Pittsburgh Steelers seemingly received some good news Monday regarding fourth-year offensive tackle Broderick Jones from GM Omar Khan at the NFL Owners meetings in Arizona, the left tackle position — and the left side of the offensive line in general — remains a bit of a question for 2026.
The loss of Isaac Seumalo in free agency hurts, and even when Jones was fully healthy he wasn’t playing as well as many hoped or expected, leading to questions about his fifth-year option.
The health situation with him clouds things as he continues to recover from reported spinal fusion surgery after suffering a season-ending neck injury in Week 12 against the Chicago Bears. The Steelers didn’t sign an offensive tackle in free agency, and they did cut veteran swing tackle Calvin Anderson, so the position remains a need.
They’ve taken a look at some offensive tackle prospects via pre-draft visits, so there is interest there. For the Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo, the sweet spot for the Steelers drafting an offensive tackle comes in the round they have the most picks, that being the third round.
“They’ve met with some guys at the combine and they brought in some guys for top 30 visits who are in that day two range, that second and third round range. So that would make sense,” Fittipaldo said of the Steelers’ OT draft interest, according to video via 93.7 The Fan. “Let’s say Broderick [Jones] is healthy and that’s the best case scenario. Broderick comes back, then you get a developmental tackle that you need, right? ‘Cause you lost Calvin Anderson to that knee injury and you had to cut him. He wasn’t gonna be available or healthy until October or November. So you need that swing tackle. And I think Dylan Cook is a really interesting prospect, but it’s hard to view a guy like that as like the next guy when he’s 28 years old, right? It’s taken him a while to develop. You did really well in that short amount of time. I’m intrigued by it.
“I want there to be a competition there, but to your point, you don’t really know. So third round would be the perfect spot. You got three picks there. I would not be surprised at all if one of those was made on a tackle.”
The Steelers currently have three third-round picks, one of which was acquired in the George Pickens trade, while the other was a compensatory pick awarded to them for, ironically, losing Dan Moore Jr. in free agency last offseason to the Tennessee Titans.
Now, they could potentially use that compensatory pick to land a developmental swing tackle.
The Steelers have shown some interest in names like Miami (FL) OT Markel Bell and Memphis OT Travis Burke, both of whom project as Day 2 selections, and likely in the third round. Both are hulking figures standing 6-foot-8 and taller, and both have long arms, but are rather raw.
With new offensive line coaches in James Campen and Jahri Evans in place, the Steelers are counting on the two veteran coaches being able to continue to develop some pieces already in place in the trenches, while building up the next wave of pieces, too, whether that’s a developmental swing tackle like the Steelers have looked at so far in the pre-draft process, or a plug-and-play starter in the first round like Penn State’s Olaivavega Ioane, whom the Steelers have been connected to in recent weeks.
We’ll see how things shake out, but based on initial pre-draft movement from the Steelers, the third round is shaping up to be the likeliest spot the franchise adds an offensive lineman.
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