Steelers quarterback Will Howard is hit by Bills defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis on Thursday night.
Steelers quarterback Will Howard is hit by Bills defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis on Thursday night.
The Steelers’ quarterback room received plenty of attention this preseason. The group protecting them felt rather under-discussed — perhaps because its play as a collective unit was nothing to write home about.
There’s no way to sugarcoat this: The offensive line did not have a good preseason. While the offense as a whole performed well in two of its three games this month, there were seemingly always issues up front, especially when the best opposing defensive unit was on the field.
That isn’t exactly encouraging.
The Steelers have invested a great deal of capital into improving their play up front. Assistant general manager Andy Weidl noted as much last week.
“When you build through the line of scrimmage, control the line of scrimmage, you’ve got a chance to win a lot of games,” Weidl said. “It starts up front. We want to be big. We want to be strong. I said it in my first year I got here. We want to be able to impose our will on people and be able to break them in the second half of games.”
General manager Omar Khan has selected three offensive tackles in the first round since taking over in 2022. Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick were selected in the second and fourth rounds of 2024.
This needs to be the year we see these investments start to pay off, and while it would be wrong to have a strong reaction from anything that takes place prior to Week 1, the numbers this preseason were not pretty.
The Steelers surrendered at least three sacks in all three games (the New York Jets tallied four last week at Acrisure Stadium). The offensive line allowed more quarterback hits in each successive game as well (the Bills logged six hits on Steelers signal-callers in Thursday night’s 28-27 loss).
The run game wasn’t much better. The Steelers failed to eclipse triple digits on the ground in any of their three preseason games. Thursday was the lone game in which the rushing attack averaged more than four yards per carry (4.2).
From this point forward, the games actually matter.
While that means the Steelers’ offensive front now has something to actually play for, it should be noted that protection won’t get any easier. Youngsters Will Howard and Drew Allar, who are both decently mobile, took the bulk of the reps this preseason. Their escapability is much better than what we’ll see from Aaron Rodgers, the NFL’s oldest player, this fall.
Much has been made about what this Steelers’ offense could look like. McCarthy’s play-calling undeniably opens up a new world of possibilities. The additions of Michael Pittman Jr., Rico Dowdle and Germie Bernard were all necessary and have the potential to be impactful.
But that can’t happen if the offensive line doesn’t perform.
Rodgers is clearly comfortable with getting the ball out quickly, but that should be something he does by choice, not out of necessity. There were times last year when it was difficult to determine which was the case.
This offensive line doesn’t just need to be better than last season, it needs to be the best unit on the offense. That should be the expectation considering what has been invested. And if that can’t happen, then the Steelers might have a rough road ahead.
First Published: August 28, 2026, 8:00 a.m.