The Steelers are flipping their offensive line to the left to protect a 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers
Troy Fautanu and Mason McCormick are moving their right-side chemistry over to the left. Mike McCarthy wants the blind side solid before anything else.
The Steelers are reshuffling their offensive line this spring, and the organizing principle is one 42-year-old quarterback. Troy Fautanu is moving from right tackle to left, taking guard Mason McCormick with him, as Mike McCarthy prioritizes solidifying the side that protects Aaron Rodgers' blind side.
What are the actual moves?
Several at once. Troy Fautanu, the 2024 first-round pick, shifts from right tackle to left tackle after two seasons on the right. Right guard Mason McCormick slides to left guard alongside him. Dylan Cook moves from left tackle to the right side, and Spencer Anderson goes to right guard, where he said he feels more comfortable. The left side is being rebuilt as a unit, not patched one spot at a time.
Why move Fautanu and McCormick together?
Chemistry. The two developed it playing adjacent on the right side, and the staff is preserving that by moving them as a pair to the left. Both also played left-side positions in college, so this is closer to a return than a reinvention. The wrinkle: Fautanu previously blocked for left-handed quarterbacks, so protecting Rodgers' actual blind side is a genuine adjustment, not just a mirror image of what he already knew.
Why is the left side the priority?
Because that's Rodgers' blind side, and Rodgers is 42. New coach Mike McCarthy emphasized solidifying the left early to work effectively with him. A pocket quarterback that age cannot absorb edge pressure the way a younger, mobile one can, and the whole point of the reshuffle is to give him a clean, trustworthy pocket from the side he can't see. Offensive line coach James Campen framed it as a process: 'It takes time and you have to be adaptable and adjustable.'
What forced all this?
Attrition. The Steelers lost guard Isaac Seumalo to free agency, and 2023 first-round left tackle Broderick Jones is recovering from spinal fusion surgery with no concrete return timeline. That uncertainty pushed Pittsburgh to draft tackle Max Iheanachor in the first round and to reorganize the rest of the line around the players who are healthy and available. The shuffle is partly by design and partly by necessity.
Players in this story
Sources
- ESPN: Steelers' O-line shuffle an attempt to protect Aaron Rodgers
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