Steelers Now
The last two drafts the Pittsburgh Steelers put together should guide the way for what’s to come. That’s how team president Art Rooney II sees it anyway.
During an exclusive interview with Rob King posted to Steelers.com on Monday night, Rooney lauded the job that general manager Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin did in finding the right young talent over the past couple of springs.
“I do feel good about the last two draft classes,” Rooney said. “That group together can be the foundation for the future, particularly the offensive line that we spent some draft capital on … the last two years. That should be one of the strengths of the team, I’d say, going forward. I like what happened in those two drafts and, you know, we need to do it again this coming April.”
In each of the past two drafts, the Steelers took an offensive lineman with their top pick, something they’d never done before in consecutive seasons. Pittsburgh grabbed Washington offensive tackle Troy Fautanu with the No. 20 overall choice in the 2024 NFL Draft after he’d unexpectedly fallen into their laps. The year before, the Steelers traded up in order to get Georgia offensive tackle Broderick Jones.
In 2024, Khan also got West Virginia center Zach Frazier in the second round and South Dakota State’s Mason McCormick in the fourth. Maryland’s Spencer Anderson was a seventh-round add in 2023, providing depth on the offensive front for Pittsburgh.
The Steelers still have yet to see what they have in Fautanu, who played in just one regular season game as a rookie. He suffered what was basically a dislocated kneecap during a practice before Pittsburgh’s game early in the campaign against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Jones, on the other hand, they’ve seen in a much larger sample size, having played in 34 games and made 27 starts in his two years as a pro. What happens with Dan Moore, Jr. this off-season will likely dictate which position Jones winds up in next fall.
Frazier started all 15 games he played as a newcomer. McCormick made 14 starts and played in 17 games, filling in in a large capacity after James Daniels was lost for the season.
