For a third consecutive year, the Steelers featured the same set of starters on their offensive line in the form of Alejandro Villanueva, Ramon Foster, Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro, and Marcus Gilbert. The group paved the way for the Steelers to average 104.2 rushing yards per game and only allowed 24 sacks on the season, the third least in the NFL.
But how did they perform individually?
We grade out the year's performance in Carter's Classroom:
Matt Feiler
Starting with the reserves, we focus on Matt Feiler, a player who has spent the past few years on the Steelers' practice squad and got his first NFL start in the team's final game of the 2017 season. Feiler is a bigger tackle at 6-foot-6, 330 pounds, who proved he could be used as an extra option at the tackle position.
Feiler isn't a mobile lineman, but he's a mauler who can overpower smaller defenders and use his size for leverage over less-talented players at the point of attack. He's still just a reserve, but his size and lack of exposure to the rest of the league might make him the perfect candidate as the Steelers' top replacement at tackle in the coming seasons.
Feiler will get more repetitions in the coming training camp against some of the Steelers' better defensive linemen, and perhaps develop his skill set so he can better counter moves of the better defensive linemen in the NFL and not just have to rely on the possibility that his strength and size will win out.
Jerald Hawkins
Jerald Hawkins has been a bit of a disappointment thus far after being drafted in the fourth round by the Steelers in 2016 and only seeing a minimal amount of playing time in his first two seasons. He was on injured reserve all of 2016 and only played 48 snaps in 2017. Even Feiler, who was an undrafted player, was in for 75 snaps.
Hawkins was drafted with the opportunity to become Villanueva's replacement should the team not be able to sign the veteran to a deal. But when the Steelers saw how unprepared Hawkins was to be a starter in this or even next year, it forced their hand, and they signed Villanueva to a four-year deal that will make him a cap hit of $7.6 million in 2018, barring any restructuring.
Hawkins still has two years left on his rookie contract to prove he was worth the fourth round pick the Steelers invested in him.
B.J. Finney
B.J. Finney might be the most valuable of the depth offensive linemen on the Steelers' roster. His ability to play guard and center at a slightly more than adequate level usually means that if the Steelers are missing any of their interior linemen, Finney can make sure the dropoff is not severe.
Finney has proven to be a sufficient replacement, especially for Foster at left guard. He consistently gets his pad level lower than his opponent and can get off the ball quickly enough to beat many opponents to the spot, both in pass protection and against the run.
Both Finney and Foster are in the final year of their contracts in 2018, but Finney will be 27 by the time they expire and Foster will be 33. When that is considered along with the fact Finney's 2017 cap hit is $630,000, while Foster's is $3.59 million, Finney is in a prime position to earn a solid contract from the Steelers if he continues to perform well in 2018.
Chris Hubbard
Competing with Finney as the Steelers' top replacement on the line was Chris Hubbard, who saw the most snaps of any backup lineman at 780 snaps, 70.5 percent of the team's offensive plays.
Hubbard became a crucial replacement for Gilbert throughout the season as Gilbert missed five games due to injury in the early part of the season, and then four more due to a suspension for performance enhancing drugs later in the year.
Gilbert is a huge piece of what the Steelers like to do, so Hubbard had big shoes to fill and struggled at times to fill them at right tackle. While Gilbert is more of a big mauler style of lineman, Hubbard is a smaller and more agile player who can be used in space.
When the Steelers needed to run off right tackle and seal a defender to the inside, Gilbert was great at that, while Hubbard was only adequate. Gilbert also is one of the more underrated pass protectors, while Hubbard is average at that level. But what Hubbard did provide the Steelers was another piece to their blocking schemes.
Even in 2016, the Steelers made use of Hubbard as an extra tight end at times to be a lead blocker in run-heavy formations to pave the way for Le'Veon Bell. So when Hubbard saw a significant boost in playing time in 2017, he was not lost in meshing with the group.
Take a look at this sweep by the Steelers against the Patriots and how Hubbard has a key role along with the rest of the line in giving Bell a clear path for a first down. Pouncey is highlighted in yellow, while DeCastro is highlighted in blue, but Hubbard is in red because he is the mobile lineman who pulls and turns into a lead blocker for Bell.
Notice how Hubbard gets out in space and manages to neutralize Stephon Gilmore in the flat in order to open a clear path for Bell. That along with the superb job of the rest of the unit more than does the job of taking care of the strong side of the Patriots' defense:
Hubbard proved how much of an asset he was to the Steelers in 2017, but in doing so may have made himself a huge target in free agency that Kevin Colbert cannot afford to protect.
The NFL is lacking in talented offensive tackles, a position of increasing importance as edge rushers continue to shut down plays by dominating both against the run and the pass. Hubbard will most likely get a nice veteran contract to play somewhere else in the NFL as the Steelers try to re-sign Bell and make other roster moves.
Ramon Foster
Foster is the wily veteran of the group and is the oldest at 32. He's the least mobile as far as becoming a pulling lead blocker, but he's still a solid role player in the offense who knows his job and often gets it done. He won't always dominate at the point of attack, but rarely is his assignment unaccounted for during an offensive play.
As he enters the final year of his contract, Foster will be looking to prove he's worth another year or two with the team and continue to be the steady lineman he has been for years.
Alejandro Villanueva
Villanueva might be the weakest link of the starting unit, but that's only because the other four starters are just that good. His 6-9 330-pound frame makes him a left tackle who cannot be beaten simply by bigger defenders. However, Villanueva has been notorious for slow starts to his seasons and in my film study of the Steelers, 2017 was no exception.
In each year he has played for the Steelers, Villanueva has made casual mistakes in the earlier weeks of the season, whether it's been getting beat at the point of attack or missing an assignment altogether. The most evident example from this season came against the Bears when he surrendered a sack during a key fourth quarter drive while Ben Roethlisberger was trying to move the Steelers into field goal range to win late.
Villanueva was beaten by veteran defensive end Willie Young and allowed him around the edge to pressure Roethlisberger and ultimately make the sack. Notice how once Villanueva took his first two steps into his drop to stop Young, he stopped moving his feet. That was a common occurrence early in the season, and it cost the Steelers on a drive that could have won them a game that they ended up losing:
Villanueva turned around his performance in 2017, as he has each year he's been with the Steelers. But ultimately he's become one of their reliable veterans who will need to be a tone-setter in the years to come. His current contract makes him the eighth-largest cap hit on the Steelers' roster, but his deal is backloaded with only $1.6 million in guaranteed money in the final year of his contract in 2020.
As the Steelers continue to make space for 2018, he may be a target for restructuring to change the nature of that deal, but ultimately he's earned a regular spot for the Steelers because once he's gotten his game rolling, he has become a consistent protector on the edge.
Villanueva actually had the most snaps of any offensive player for the Steelers at 1077 plays (97.38 percent) on the season. He eclipsed Roethlisberger, Pouncey and DeCastro because each of them rested against the Browns, while he did not, as the Steelers rested most of their starters in the final week of the season.
Marcus Gilbert
I've long said that Gilbert is an underrated NFL player, as he has never been elected to an All-Pro team or the Pro Bowl, despite having seasons like 2015 when he did not yield a single sack. He's gone up against the league's top pass rushers and shut them out over the years, including Von Miller twice in 2015, yet hasn't received national recognition for that.
Gilbert didn't help his case in 2017 by being unavailable for a full nine games.
When Gilbert is out there, he's a key piece to sealing the edge and allowing for the right side to be a consistent focus for the running game. He's also a reliable protector to Roethlisberger's strong side who rarely gets beat by a single rusher, even when it's an elite player.
Gilbert will have to make himself more available in 2018 as the Steelers will most likely lose Hubbard and not have the reliable backup on call like they did in 2017. But considering that he's been reliable in that regard for most of his career, the Steelers should be comfortable expecting him to revert back to being regularly available.
Maurkice Pouncey
Pouncey is still a key cog in this offense in his eighth season in the NFL. Not only is he strong at the point of attack, but he has a great sense of where he's supposed to be, how he fits into the Steelers' schemes and is great at pulling and becoming a lead blocker for Bell.
Having that kind of a center has been a key point of emphasis for the Steelers' offense for years. Back in the days of Dermontti Dawson, the Steelers showed the NFL just how dangerous an extremely athletic center can be. While Pouncey isn't Dawson, he's extremely valuable for what he can do.
Linebackers are normally trained to watch guards, as they are usually the more athletic of the linemen and pull to become lead blockers in various running plays. Linebackers expect if they follow the direction of the guards, they can usually take them to the play. But when a center can pull while the guards stay in, it adds another level of complexity to the game.
Here's an example of when Pouncey pulled against the Lions and sealed the edge against Tahir Whitehead for Bell. Notice how both guards stay inside and Pouncey gets to the edge, where Whitehead thinks he's free to tackle Bell, and then the center seals back to push the linebacker out of the way and clear a path for Bell:
These type of plays have become routine over the years and are moments that often get overlooked because of how consistent Pouncey is at a job that is usually thankless. While everyone's noticing how Roethlisberger threw a great pass or how Bell hurdled a defender in space, few notice how many different problems Pouncey creates for defenses and how key he is to the Steelers' offensive success.
David DeCastro
Right up there with Bell in regards to the Steelers' success is DeCastro, who might've taken the mantle of the Steelers' best lineman over the past few years. DeCastro is Pittsburgh's most physical player at the point of attack and normally dominates whoever lines up against him on the line of scrimmage.
But, like Pouncey, DeCastro is a great athlete who can get out and become a lead blocker in both the run and the pass game. Plenty of screens for the Steelers will feature both Pouncey and DeCastro as the primary lead blockers for that very reason, as the Bengals found out late in the season.
Here's a play where DeCastro sells his block extremely well, then disengages and gets out with Pouncey to plow the road for Bell to get the Steelers in scoring range. It's subtle moments such as these where linemen can prove to be great craftsmen:
DeCastro is one of the toughest Steelers on the roster and just as big a piece as Pouncey to their success. He and Pouncey remaining healthy next to each other is vital to presenting problems to defensive fronts in the coming years.
STATE OF THE UNIT
Back in 2010, Colbert made it his mission to rebuild the Steelers' offensive line into one of the NFL's best groups, and he succeeded. Drafting Pouncey, DeCastro and then Gilbert allowed him to use them as anchors to this unit, arguably the most consistent position group over the past several seasons.
Unless someone gets hurt or moved during the offseason, expect this same starting unit to be back for a fourth consecutive year, a very unusual happening, and to be as synchronized as it's ever been. The biggest questions for this group is the depth and what to do about the inevitable departure of Hubbard.
But if a unit's worst worry is that its backup tackle might not be around, it's got a lot of good things going for it. When you have both a center and a guard widely considered among the best in the NFL and a group of veterans around them who can hold their own, your quarterback and running back are going to be very happy.
Final Grade: A
Dale's Stock: I thought this group was better in 2016 than it was in 2017 and much of that can be attributed to Gilbert missing so much time. While Hubbard will get paid to start somewhere, and deservedly so, Gilbert is the better overall player. Still, it's a unit that has grown up together and should continue to be a top-5 line in the NFL. Seeing some of the younger players start to step up and show they can be legitimate players is a must since the trouble with drafting all of these guys around that same time is that they're also getting older together. But this is the best overall unit on the team with all apologies to the wide receivers.