With the additions of Mason Cole and James Daniels to their offensive line this week in free agency, the Steelers are showing they value youth over just simply adding whatever experience they could get on the open market.
That showed in their re-signing of right tackle Chuks Okorafor, as well.
The Steelers now have exactly what they had for a number of years with Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro, Ramon Foster and others in the previous decade -- an offensive line that can grow together for several years.
But it doesn't mean they've completely thrown experience out the window, either.
Cole will turn 26 March 28. He's the old man of this group outside of swing offensive tackle Joe Haeg, who is 29. Despite that, Cole has played more than 2,500 snaps in his career, including 471 last season with the Vikings at both guard and center.
Daniels, who doesn't turn 25 until September. Despite that, he played over 1,100 snaps for the Bears in 2021 and more than 3,300 in his career. Despite his relative youth, he's appeared in 54 career games, starting 48 at both guard and center.
The same could be said of Okorafor, who doesn't turn 25 until August. Like Daniels was at guard, Okorafor was the youngest free agent available at his position in this free agent class.
Despite that, Okorafor has logged over 1,000 offensive snaps in each of the past two seasons for the Steelers. He's appeared in 46 games and made 35 starts.
Add them to a group that includes second-year players Dan Moore, who started 16 games and played more than 1,000 snaps as a rookie, and center Kendrick Green (15 starts, 977 snaps), along with third-year guard Kevin Dotson (13 career starts, 925 snaps played), and you have a nice nucleus of players -- all under the age of 26 -- to build around.
"It's exciting that we can all grow together," Daniels said. "We've all seen a decent amount of football. It's exciting that we're all getting an opportunity to build with each other and grow with each other."
And all are under contract for the next two seasons, with Dotson's rookie deal ending after the 2023 season.
Will it lead to better play in 2022 than we saw in 2021? The odds are good that the group will continue to improve, especially the more they play together.
It might never be one of the top units in the league, but it's been completely rebuilt in a matter of a couple of three years -- all without using a single first-round draft pick to do so. That's the difference between this rebuild and the one the Steelers undertook starting in 2010 when they used a first-round pick on Pouncey.
Right tackle Marcus Gilbert was a second-round pick the next year. DeCastro was the team's first-round pick in 2012. That was a completely home-grown unit, with Ramon Foster, a former undrafted free agent, manning a guard spot, and the likes of late-round picks or undrafted players such as Kelvin Beachum, Chris Hubbard, Alejandro Villanueva and Matt Feiler sprinkled in.
Okorafor was a third-round draft pick in 2018. Dotson was a fourth-round selection in 2020. Green (third round) and Moore (fourth round) were added last season.
Despite the additions in free agency, the line will still come relatively cheap this year. Okorafor will count just $4.3 million against this year's salary cap. Daniels will count $4.1 million. Cole will come in around $3 million, as does Haeg. The rest of the offensive linemen are playing on their rookie contracts.
In this case, you might get better than what you pay for.
The Steelers ranked 28th in offensive line DVOA according to Football Outsiders last season. They were 32nd in 2020 despite DeCastro, Pouncey and Villanueva all having cap hits in excess of $7.5 million.
That group just got old -- all at the same time.
This current line has several seasons before that will have a chance to happen to it.
Now, the only question that remains is exactly how much better it can be?
In a league in which good offensive line play is rare, if the Steelers' starters can all prove to be league average at their positions, that would add up to being a top-10-type unit. All too many teams have three or four solid lineman and one or two players who are simply nothing more than stop gaps.
The beauty of what the Steelers have done in adding two more experienced bodies to the equation is that it gives them options to simply put their best five players on the field, while also keeping their options open in the draft. If another good, young offensive lineman is available, they can take him and add him to the mix. If not, they're covered.
Or, if Green continues to struggle at center, they now have other available options in Daniels and Cole beyond last year's backup J.C. Hassenauer, who also remains in the mix. If Dotson or another of the guards goes down, as happened last season, the Steelers will have a young, capable player ready to step in, instead of being forced to settle on an inexperienced John Leglue.
And they accomplished all of that without breaking the bank, which they surely would have done had they simply paid a higher price for more experienced players. In this case, the Steelers are paying for what they feel their offensive linemen will do in the future as opposed for what they did in the past for another team.
That's just good business.
Adding experienced, yet younger players, was the way to go.
“As you get up in years in the NFL — not that I’m older, but it comes to a point where you have to be that guy in the room one way or another,” Cole said. “I’ve been that young guy in the room and have had older mentors lead the way. If I can do that, it would be a great honor.”
