The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line is another year older with more experience entering the 2025 season, yet despite that added experience there’s still quite a bit of change that the group is undergoing this offseason.
Broderick Jones is shifting back to left tackle entering Year 3 after Dan Moore Jr. left in free agency. Meanwhile, the right side of the offensive line will feature a new starting combination with right guard Mason McCormick and right tackle Troy Fautanu. Neither started a game next to each other last season, as Fautanu played just one game before being lost for the season due to a knee injury, and McCormick didn’t take over as starter until Week 5.
Second-year center Zach Frazier returns at the pivot for the Black and Gold and is line for a big year after a good rookie season. But the most important — and most dependable — piece of the entire offensive line is also its most underrated one.
That would be veteran left guard Isaac Seumalo.
For Frazier, who spoke to reporters Thursday following another Organized Team Activities session at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Seumalo’s presence and experience are “crucial” to the Steelers’ young offensive line.
“He’s the veteran in the room and he’s seen a lot of football, so he helps us out a lot,” Frazier said of Seumalo, according to video via Pittsburgh’s DSEN on YouTube. “Just for his wisdom and the stuff he’s seen and sharing with us. So yeah, he’s crucial for us.”
Since coming to the Steelers as a free agent ahead of the 2023 season after seven seasons in Philadelphia, Seumalo has started 30 of a possible 34 regular-season games, as well as both of the Steelers’ playoff games. In that time, he’s seen quite a few changes in the trenches for the team under offensive line coach Pat Meyer.
Last season might have been the most trying though, as Seumalo was the elder statesman on a young offensive line that ultimately ended up starting a rookie center, a second-year right tackle and a rookie right guard down the stretch. As expected, there were a lot of ups and downs in that time frame for the Steelers.
But now, entering the 2025 season, the young offensive line looks solid on paper and appears poised for a big step forward. Seumalo is at the heart of that.
He’s the veteran leader, the one who has seen a lot of football in the NFL, and has been there, done that. He’s still playing some good football, too.
Seumalo played 826 snaps last season and allowed just 26 total pressures and two sacks. He was also flagged just five times. He allowed the same number of pressures last season as he did in 2023 in his first season in the Black and Gold, and he did so while playing next to a rookie center and a veteran left tackle who completely collapsed in the second half in pass protection.
He’ll be counted on to play at a high level in 2025, too, as Broderick Jones flips back over to left tackle and Frazier is in Year 2, putting him in between two young pieces the Steelers are relying heavily on.
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