Whereas the quarterback place is all the time the largest gap in your group till it’s crammed, for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the offensive line must are available in at an in depth second this offseason. Not solely are they coming off of a really disappointing yr within the trenches, they even have two of their starters set to be unrestricted free brokers.
It goes with out saying that the group might be extremely motivated to discover the choices obtainable alongside the offensive line this offseason. One participant that Jordan Reid of ESPN believes that they need to have their eye on on the Mix over the course of this week is Central Michigan’s Bernhard Raimann. He writes:
The Steelers want O-line assist, and Raimann is a possible plug-and-play choice who may present an instantaneous increase at proper deal with. His energy may assist him be a long-term resolution on the place.
The Steelers’ proper deal with for many of the previous two seasons, Chukwuma Okorafor, is amongst their extra important gamers set to grow to be an unrestricted free agent in a few weeks. He has began all however two video games over the previous two years, and the one different risk on the roster is Zach Banner, who was supposed to begin in 2021, and was the starter on opening day in 2020, solely to tear his ACL within the sport.
However Banner hasn’t even performed 100 profession snaps at deal with in significant video games, and he’s going into yr six. Lots of that stems from elements out of his management, however the backside line is that he stays an unknown commodity in that position, and he comes with a $5 million price ticket. In different phrases, he’s doubtlessly a cap reduce.
And it ought to go with out saying that the group must be exploring avenues to improve any of their offensive line positions, as a result of all 5 spots may be improved. Okorafor was serviceable at greatest, which is sufficient, but when you will get a plus participant, you may as effectively do it.
Raimann was beforehand mocked to the Steelers by Professional Soccer Focus final month. “Their deal with play has been terrible, however hopefully, Raimann can change that”, Seth Galina wrote of the Steelers. “The massive Austrian transformed to deal with from tight finish a number of years in the past however blossomed into probably the greatest within the nation in 2021. His inventory continues to skyrocket”.
Raimann did say that he had (or had scheduled) a proper assembly with the Steelers throughout the Mix. He ran a 5.05-second 40-yard sprint time, which is definitely respectable. He benched 30 occasions, with a 30.5” vertical, a 117” broad bounce, a three-cone time of seven.46 seconds, and a 20-yard shuttle time of 4.49. His bench ranked fourth on the yr with the sixth-ranked vertical, third-ranked broad bounce, and fifth-ranked 20-yard shuttle, so he examined fairly effectively general.
