Training camp and preseason are always a love-hate relationship for everyone. Teams are ironing out the kinks, getting better every day, while also dealing with poor preseason play and making tough roster decisions. Fans get the highlights, the energy that football is almost back but get their hearts ripped out by injuries and the new players not living up to expectations.

Preseason is also a good time to observe and see what might be going right, or in this article’s case, wrong with your team. It’s not really an easy to do from a fan perspective – teams don’t show much scheme wise, starters don’t play much, and new coaches – like McCarthy – are getting to know their players and staff.

But I’m going to do my best, based on everything I’ve watched and read thus far, to break down what I think are the biggest concerns the Steelers have heading into week one.

Offensive Line Questions

Post-draft I normally have a good feel on where the Steelers will struggle, but I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong about the offensive line. Looking back to the Spring I don’t know why I had confidence outside of Frazier and McCormick, and we’re seeing all the issues unfold over the last month.

Dylan Cook and Spencer Anderson seem to be who we thought they were – solid backups but not much more. Getting a third-rounder for Broderick Jones is honestly unreal, but he was clearly not back to football shape after recovering from a neck injury. And Troy Fautanu is taking his lumps transferring over the left side, something most people thought would be a breeze for him for whatever reason.

Seeing this chart from Football Insights on Twitter is what really got me thinking more about the offensive line. At first glance I was like 22, really? But as it stands it seems like the media might be right.

In pass pro the line looked okay against the Packers but horrible against the Jets and Bills throughout the entire game, which included starters early vs New York. There also haven’t been many holes for running backs to run through, as their longest run this preseason is just 11 yards.

I know – it’s early, it’s preseason, they’ll get better, don’t freak out. But right now this sits at about a 8/10 concern for me. Rotating tackles in a preseason game is a horrible look, Max Iheanachorhas been hurt most of camp (and did not look great against the Bills), and no one is really making a name for themselves.

Outside of quarterback, offensive line is probably the most important position group in football, especially so when you have a 42-year-old at quarterback. I don’t want to sound extreme, but the season will be over before it starts if the offensive line doesn’t hold up. We’ll be right back to the two and three-yard runs, dink and dunk, limited scheme, bottom-10 offense we’ve seen the last 7 years.

On the plus side, Anderson and Cook have starting experience and have shown they can play in this league, and playing Atlanta without their top two pass rushers should be a great tune-up. Now whether they need time adapting to McCarthy’s system or learning new offensive line coach James Campen’s new technique, you have to trust pros will be pros and will get comfortable eventually. How soon that is, though, could impact the season early on.

Secondary Synergy

Similarly to the O-line I had a ton of confidence coming into the season in the secondary – and I still do – but rather than overrate this group things just haven’t been smooth for them in camp.

Every single starter – Joey Porter Jr, Jalen Ramsey, DeShon Elliot, Jaquan Brisker – other than Jamel Dean have been hurt for some period of time in camp. Obviously injuries happen in camp, but for the entire position group to not get a single rep together with less than three weeks until week one isn’t ideal.

On top of that they’re all learning a new system under Patrick Graham. And yeah players do that every year, but who in the hell knows what Teryl Austin and Tomlin were doing over the last few years, so I’d imagine it’s going to require a bunch of new looks, per-snap movement, blitzes, and a lot more communication – something the group hasn’t done much of.

Of course saving the best for last – the Joey Porter Jr situation. I’ve stayed relatively mellow about this situation because I truly believe Khan will get a deal done. You don’t trade an ascending player like JPJ at one of the most valuable positions in the sport. Khan already did it once with Pickens, and I know he doesn’t feel good about that. In my opinion, there’s just no way he lets that happen again.

In the slim chance they do trade JPJ (because I highly doubt he plays without a new deal), Asante Samuel Jr has had a great camp and has played well. But JPJ is on his way to playing at an All-Pro level and Samuel obviously doesn’t have that in him. With Porter being Steeler legacy and guys like Ramsey publicly stating Porter needs to be paid, losing him would also ding the team from a morale standpoint.

Again, I trust McCarthy and Graham to have the group ready as long as they’re healthy. It also helps playing a Tua-led Falcons team week one to get their feet under them. But this was supposed to be a very strong point of this team, and it’s a bit too shaky for my liking as we stand today.

Linebacker Lows

I’m not gonnna spend too much time on this one because I think most people know based off how they played last year. Patrick Queen has not been who people thought he would be (I was on the side of he thrived because of Roquan in Baltimore, but had hope), and Payton Wilson hasn’t really grown into the position yet.

There’s been some positive reports that Wilson was flying to the ball in camp and has looked much better overall, but we’ll see how true that is right away against Bijan. There’s no doubt he has the speed and athletic ability, he just needs the physical presence of taking on and shedding blocks to really take that next step.

Patrick Queen has similar issues on the physical side – there’s times where he makes incredible plays in the backfield shooting through gaps, and then there’s times he looks completely lost. He needs to improve a ton on finishing tackles. I feel like he’s always looking to make the splash play, but to really help this team he should be fine making a tackle after a two or three yard play and live to see another down.

Then we have the depth. If either of the two above go down, the Steelers will be in big trouble. Cole Holcomb moves like he has cement in his shoes and couldn’t cover a present if he was gift wrap. Then Carson Bruener has what, a handful of plays from 2025 that weren’t on special teams? Don’t get me wrong I hope he pans out, but when you just look at him he really doesn’t look like an NFL linebacker.

I’m normally not a feel-sorry-for-you type of guy when it comes to the NFL, but what the Steelers did to Elandon Roberts was messed up. That guy is a good football player, played really well for us, and to make him play late into a preseason game just to cut him is messed up. He’s earned more in this league to be a camp body, and if he doesn’t make his way back on the Steelers roster I hope he gets a shot on another team.

Disclaimer: my third point above was going to be special teams, but Kaden Wetjen saved them from my wrath in the Buffalo game. I’m still nervous about all the penalties in preseason and Danny Crossman being new, but hopefully that gets cleaned up and Wetjen really is that guy.

One of my friends said this past week in our group chat – “the Steelers are the only one of our teams that haven’t had any negative press this training camp.” I started writing this article before he said that, but it’s a good point and a good reason why I think it’s important to touch on some things that are shaky in Pittsburgh that the general public might not know about.

I hope these things work themselves out, especially the offensive line, but only time will tell. Only two more weeks until the Mike McCarthy era begins in Pittsburgh (talk about a sentence I never thought would come out of my mouth).

Here We Go.