Kovacevic: This offensive line will take a ton of time, work ... or it won't

INDIANAPOLIS -- It's a big problem.

As in, the big problem. 

It's a problem that weighs in at 300 pounds apiece. It's a problem that's roughly three years in the overall making. And it's a problem so all encompassing that it'll undo pretty much all other processes until it's solved.

Which is to say, this:

These Steelers are seeking scores of solutions to scores of issues, mostly though no longer entirely on offense, and that'll continue in savage earnest here tonight -- 8:15 p.m. kickoff -- against the Colts inside Lucas Oil Stadium. Those issues are too many to enumerate within the scope of a 3-7 record. It might be limited, for most eyes, to the season-long grooming of a rookie quarterback, but there's a bunch more and, in fact, the lone exceptions I can cite are ... eh, George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth?

Maybe Kenny Pickett as he progresses beyond the NFL's natural natal stage of being intercepted too much?

And yet, what might be most maddening is that the bulk of the offensive playbook, as well as the players themselves, never even reach the launch phase because of the failures at ground level. 

Najee Harris hasn't been the NFL's most dynamic running back, to be polite, and Matt Canada couldn't craft a clever running play if his next breath depended on it, to avoid politeness altogether. But through 10 games of the 2022 schedule, we all have about as much a clue as Canada when it comes to evaluating this offense, if only because the line stops far too many plays before they've got a chance to get going.

Thumb back up to that GIF. Sure, there's a delayed blitz by the Buccaneers' Lavonte David, an inside linebacker, and he's the first of the Tampa Bay defense to get a lick on Najee. But then, isolate on the black jerseys, and note that the only one who doesn't get his clock cleaned is Dan Moore at left tackle. Everyone else is left standing like they're in line at the grocery checkout.

How'd Najee do there?

Who knows?

How was Canada's scheme?

Probably uninspired, but who knows?

Now, check this out:

For all the fussing that's being done about Canada's unwillingness to diagram passing plays over the middle, not to mention the related fuss about whether or not Kenny Pickett could complete such passes on a regular basis, what's grossly glaring above is the uglier-still fact that no one's even trying.

Why?

Could be because there's no quarterback anywhere in the modern NFL who's looking to that segment of the field as a secondary option, much less tertiary. That's either the main target, or it doesn't crack the list at all. 

And why wouldn't it crack the list?

Because the line can't hold blocks long enough for plays like those to develop.

Oh, there've been blips along the way, even a brief couple weeks where the line was being lauded -- or damned with faint praise -- as being the offense's greatest strength. But that's long since given way to the Latrobe-long status quo that this wouldn't go well at all, in large part because the left side of the line, notably Moore but also Kevin Dotson, has continued allowing far too much free-flowing traffic to Pickett. Some of it's been the opponents picking on them -- literally, I mean, with smart picks -- and some of it's been other forms of experience. But it's been a little too long for both these youngsters to still be stuck at this stage.

This, my friends, is the pivoting point. Meaning this remaining stretch of games, beginning tonight.

Over the past summer, the Steelers invested $72 million into signing two free agents from other teams, Mason Cole and James Daniels, and keeping another from leaving, Chuks Okorafor. Which applied at least a tourniquet to the center and right side. I've liked Cole, I'm learning to like Daniels after being down early, and I'm perhaps naively willing to like Okorafor if he can ever find consistency.

But this left side ...

Let's put it this way: Even with that $72 million spent, the Steelers' cap space invested in the line is still just $17.4 million, second-lowest in the NFL. For further perspective, these Colts are spending $42.7 million on their line, fourth-most in the league and a whopping 20.04% of their cap space.

Let's also put it this way: The Steelers have barely invested any draft capital on the line in far too long. No picks at all in the most recent draft. No picks in the top two rounds since ... my God, way back to 2012, when David DeCastro was the first-rounder. No third-round picks, either, other than Kendrick Green, who already can't get a helmet.

Whether those calls fell more on Mike Tomlin or Kevin Colbert, the latter's now gone, and I have a hard time envisioning that Omar Khan, after watching this line all of this season, will allow another class to pass like that.

Which means that the two guys on the left side had better start showing well, and soon. No more talk of learning each other. No more talk of cohesion, communication or chemistry. As James Harrison once told me at Saint Vincent College, "Football's a simple game down there: Beat the man across from you."

Yeah, try that.

• For real, though, if the Steelers had just an NFL-average left tackle eight days ago against the Bengals, they'd have beaten the defending AFC champs by two touchdowns. I can't be convinced otherwise. That's how many critical plays Moore never allowed to materialize.

• From the opposite perspective: The Colts aren't without their flaws at 4-6-1 within a blah AFC South. And that expensive line of theirs, with the legit great Jonathan Taylor behind them, has their running game ranked 26th in the NFL, or three notches below the Steelers. So they're a model of commitment more than execution.

But with Jeff Saturday, Peyton Manning's old center, running the show now with zero prior coaching experience, be certain he'll turn to Taylor, whom he calls "special," while adding, "Touches matter for him and getting the run game going.”

It'll all happen in the trenches tonight.

• Dude's really good:

Second-round pick, too. One never knows with running backs.

• No one's seen the Steelers' line make that kind of a push since 2020, the last hurrah of the previous unit. Just saying.

• The draft pick acquired from the Bears in the Chase Claypool trade would be, based on the current standings, 33rd overall. That's ... insane.

• Nice catch for him yesterday in East Rutherford, N.J., by the way, and against Sauce Gardner, no less:

But Claypool would come up with only one other catch, and he's now got a total of seven through four games in the Chicago offense.

• Between the Steelers' first-rounder, their own second-rounder and this Claypool pick, that'll buy a whole lotta line beef. Not just on the offensive side, either. The defensive front's been ignored almost as long.

• So much of the broader expectation upon Kenny, it feels to me, is unfair. Partly because he was thrust into starting at midseason, partly because he's a rookie regardless, but mostly because of this:

Those were the top five passing yardage totals across the NFL yesterday. That's the way the league goes now. With all these nickels and dimes and three-safety sets, it'll be a long, long time until anyone matches Ben Roethlisberger putting together three 500-yard gems. Or even a 400-yarder, as there's been only one of those over the past five weeks, that by Patrick Mahomes.

What matters most now for any quarterback is accuracy, and Kenny's 65.4% completion rate ranks 14th in the league despite the recent urging of the coaching staff to throw everything away when uncertain.

He'll get there.

• T.J. Watt's going to go nuts, free of having to face La'el Collins. Can't recall anyone working him the way Collins did last week.

On top of that, the Colts' weakest line position is right tackle, a relative turnstile at times in both continuity and execution. Bernhard Raimann, the latest in that spot, will need help.

Set this one in cement.

• Think JuJu Smith-Schuster isn't aware he's got more receiving yards (615) than anyone on the Steelers? And catches (46), as well? And that he's ranked 20th in the NFL in yardage, while the Steelers' highest-ranked player in that category is a tight end, Freiermuth (482) at 41st?

Yeah, I know, I know. He's got Mahomes and Andy Reid. But still.

• Indoor football stinks. I don't care if a roof brings a virtual guarantee of hosting a Super Bowl, it just strips the game of the (ideally) timeless feel of being affected by the elements.

Indoor baseball, I can handle. Warm-weather sport. Indoor football just feels phony. As if an Arena game's about to break out.

• Easy to say, I understand, if one works inside heated press boxes everywhere one goes. Full disclaimer.

• Watching a full slate of Thanksgiving, then Sunday games, while knowing not one of them impacts the Pittsburgh franchise in any way ... that also stinks. What a strange season.

• Whatever. Get better.