The loss of an offensive tackle can be devastating to any football team. Look at the Cowboys in Week 10 of this season as proof. Playing without All-Pro Tyron Smith, they lined up third-year player Chaz Green at left tackle against the Falcons. They might as well have put a turnstile there and charged a toll. Atlanta sacked Dak Prescott eight times, including six by Adrian Clayborn working against Green, in a 27-7 rout of Dallas.
Offensive tackles, particularly right tackles, don't get the publicity of a quarterback, running back or wide receiver, but they might be just as important in the grand scheme of offensive efficiency.
The Steelers know all about that. They have played five full games without right tackle Marcus Gilbert this season. They're 3-2 in those games. They're 5-0 when he starts.
Not only are the Steelers unbeaten when he plays, but they also were 10-3 last season when he was in the lineup, 1-2 when he was not.
Offensive efficiency is a big part of that. When they've had Gilbert at right tackle, they are averaging just under 27 points this season when he starts and finishes a game. When he has been on the field, they are 10 of 18 in scoring touchdowns on red zone trips. Without him, they have scored on just seven of 23 chances.
Throw out a drive at the end of a win over Indianapolis two weeks ago when the Steelers were setting up a game-winning field goal and one last Thursday night against the Titans when they were taking a knee to run out the clock following an interception, and the Steelers are 10 of 16 in the red zone with Gilbert in the lineup.
I mentioned the startling statistics to Gilbert following the Steelers' 40-17 beatdown of the Titans.
"Is that right?" he asked. "Oh man, I need to stay on the field then."
Indeed.
This is not to say backup Chris Hubbard has been bad. After all, the Steelers have allowed just 14 sacks this season, but he's not Gilbert.
"Hubs played great," Maurkice Pouncey told me. "Some of the red zone stuff when he was in there just didn’t go our way."
But a big reason things didn't go the Steelers' way in those games could be attributed to not having Gilbert available. The Steelers have felt he has played at a Pro Bowl level for the past couple of seasons. But because he plays on the right side of the line instead of the left, he hasn't been rewarded with that honor yet.
Because of the games he has missed, it's unlikely he'll be voted to the Pro Bowl this season. Then again, the Steelers' goal is to have none of their players participate in the Pro Bowl, which is played a week before the Super Bowl.
"Gil’s a great player," Pouncey told me. "Right-siders usually don’t make the Pro Bowl, but in my eyes, he’s a Pro Bowler."
Pouncey, Gilbert's teammate at the University of Florida as well as with the Steelers, might be a bit biased. But the tackle's value to the offense cannot be denied. At 6-6, 315 pounds – Gilbert dropped down from his listed weight of 330 pounds before last season – he remains a powerful force in the team's run-blocking scheme. He's adept at pass blocking, as well.
"Running the ball, he can get guys moving," Pouncey said. "Pass blocking, he does a great job. He's just a great, all-around football player."