Steelers’ offensive line just wants to win
Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey (53) leads Ramon Foster (73), Alejandro Villanueva (78), and the other offensive linemen past the fans to the practice fields at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
In this photo from July 28, 2013, Pittsburgh Steelers guard David DeCastro (66) blocks at practice during NFL football training camp at the team training facility in Latrobe, Pa. The second-year guard says he's healthy and is ready to put his injury plagued first season behind him. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey (53) looks down the line during an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
LATROBE – Pro Bowl guard David DeCastro took a day off from practice Thursday for the Steelers in their penultimate session at Saint Vincent College.
While DeCastro was in shorts and a T-shirt on the sideline watching practice, his No. 66 uniform didn’t get the day off. It was worn by left tackle Alejandro Villanueva in a nod to his teammate and good friend.
The skill players the Steelers have on offense are impressive. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, running back Le’Veon Bell – when he eventually reports to camp – and receivers Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant, rival that of any team in the NFL. The offensive line doesn’t necessarily get the national publicity.
But the group of Villanueva, DeCastro, center Maurkice Pouncey, guard Ramon Foster and tackle Marcus Gilbert are OK with that. They have bigger goals in mind than being considered the best unit in the league.
“They don’t necessarily want a whole lot of attention,” said offensive line coach Mike Munchak of his unit. “They just want to win. You just want everyone to say, ‘Hey, the line’s doing a good job.’ That’s good enough for us. We don’t need to hear anything more than that.”
Pittsburgh has kept this particular line grouping together since midway through the 2015 season when Villanueva took over for an injured Kelvin Beachum at left tackle.
Since that move, the Steelers are 20-10, including the postseason. More impressively, they were 10-3 last season when they had their starting five offensive linemen on the field together.
“The offensive line is the most important, as far as I’m concerned,” said offensive coordinator Todd Haley. “Those guys are exciting to work with. They’re extremely well coached. They’re extremely well led by guys like Pouncey and Ramon. And in my opinion, they’re right there with the best of them. Maybe they don’t get as much hype as other groups do, but this is a really good group that is working hard to try to be even better. I think they have a chance to be.”
When the top offensive lines in the NFL are talked about, the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders and even the Tennessee Titans get mentioned. The Steelers sometimes get a passing nod.
“We see it, but you can’t really judge it,” said Foster, who at 31 is the elder statesman of the group.
“We see more one-on-ones than any team in the league. A lot of teams, they slide left, they slide right. They do a bunch of zone stuff. We take a lot of pride in what Munch asks us to do. That ranking stuff, it’s all general in a sense. To us, if we keep Ben healthy and, when Le’Veon is back, we make him one of the highest rushers in the league, I think that’s successful.”
Last season, only Oakland allowed fewer than the 21 sacks given up by the Steelers. And Roethlisberger went down just 17 times in 14 regular season starts. Bell finished third in the AFC with 1,268 yards rushing despite playing in just 12 games, missing the first three of the season because of suspension and the regular season finale in a coach’s decision.
Pouncey and DeCastro were both voted to the Pro Bowl. Many felt Foster deserved to go, as well. Pro Football Focus had Foster as it’s top-rated guard in the AFC after he had just one penalty all season – in the finale against Cleveland – while not allowing a sack.
“Everyone wants to be the best at what they do. That’s everyone’s goal,” Munchak said. “If you win, you’ve been a success. Obviously, for us, we got to the AFC Championship game. We got noticed. Winning takes care of everything. We’d love to win the Super Bowl. Then we don’t care what anyone says about us. You can’t get caught up in that stuff. People have opinions. There are a lot of good offensive lines in this league, a lot of good players.”
A lot of the good play from the unit comes from not only being good players, but a bond they’ve established. The group spends time together constantly. They are as tight as any unit on the team.
That has happened despite the different routes they all took to get to this point. Pouncey and DeCastro were both first-round draft picks, while Gilbert was a second. Foster and Villanueva came into the league as undrafted rookies.
Pouncey, DeCastro and Gilbert all came to training camp making the money of a high draft pick. Villanueva was given a four-year, $24-million extension the first day of training camp. Foster isn’t making quite that much, but he’s OK with seeing his teammates taken care of.
“For us to be successful, it has to work that way in a sense that not everybody can get (big paychecks),” said Foster. “I’m appreciative of that. Al took advantage of an injury and him just badgering Munch to make him a better left tackle. It works out that way.
“We actually like each other. We work together, but we have group chats, we do stuff together in the offseason. Coach (Tomlin) tells us to try to get away from each other a little bit and we’re still communicating. It’s that type of stuff and that’s what you need. I’m happy to be playing with these guys. Some things you say you’ll give this up to do this. You build championships on that.”
The Steelers feel this year, if they can keep this group healthy, the championship that eluded them last season might be in their future.
“We’ve got to show it,” said DeCastro. “We’ve been together. We’re experienced. We’ve been with coach Munchak for three years now. We’ve got to make it happen.”
Odds and end zones
Tomlin said receiver JuJu Smith-Shuster, who left practice Wednesday with a knee injury, suffered a bone bruise and is day-to-day. … B.J. Finney, the primary backup at center and guard, left practice early because of dehydration. … The Steelers will hold their final open practice of training camp at 2:55 p.m. Friday before breaking camp on Saturday.