Preseason Has Shown the Pittsburgh Steelers Lack Offensive Line Depth

The 2015 preseason has been unkind to the Pittsburgh Steelers, primarily on defense. But there is another area that is of concern—the offensive line, where quality depth just doesn't exist.

Through five preseason games, the Steelers' four quarterbacks have been sacked a total of 15 times. Ben Roethlisberger has been taken down twice, Michael Vick four times and Landry Jones nine times. Only Bruce Gradkowski, who had a very short time under center before suffering shoulder and hand injuries, came away without a sack this summer.

Player	Sacks
Roethlisberger	2
Vick	4
Jones	9
Gradkowski	0
Total	15

The crisis mainly focuses around the tackle position, where the Steelers are thin on bodies as well as talent.

With the team releasing Collin Rahrig and Kevin Whimpey earlier in the week and placing Mike Adams on the physically unable to perform list, there were but three tackles on the roster behind starters Kelvin Beachum and Marcus Gilbert.

And it's not likely all three of those men will remain on the roster after Saturday's cut down to 53 players, especially because injuries again struck the Steelers on Thursday.

At first, it seemed that Mitchell Van Dyk was all but guaranteed to be released. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Gerry Dulac, Van Dyk gave up three first-half sacks of Vick and committed a false start penalty in Thursday's preseason finale, a 23-6 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

But late in the game, Van Dyk suffered a gruesome leg injury which will likely end his season and further thin the Steelers' depth at tackle. Head coach Mike Tomlin classified it as an ankle injury, but either way, it's a bad development for Van Dyk.

Kelvin Palmer, who has also struggled in pass protection, suffered a knee injury on Thursday night as well. 

The only sign of brightness in the Steelers' tackle depth is Alejandro Villanueva, but he can't play both the left and right tackle positions should something happen to both Gilbert and Beachum.

The Steelers may simply have to keep their fingers crossed that nothing further befalls the offensive line—aside from center Maurkice Pouncey's ankle injury—because their other options aren't very promising.

Guard is less of an issue, especially with the signing of Doug Legursky, who can play the position as well as center. But again, that depth is not very experienced or particularly talented. And it affects not just the passing game but also the run game.

Thanks in part to the offensive line's struggles, the Steelers converted only one of their 11 third-down attempts on Thursday and managed only 57 rushing yards on 23 attempts (2.5 yards per carry).

Just one replacement-level player added to the Steelers' line could sink so many facets of what is expected to be one of the most explosive offenses in the league.

Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

There is a dearth of quality offensive line depth all around the NFL, so it it is not surprising that the Steelers' depth is just as woeful.

But the Steelers had to focus on other positions when building out their 90-man and now 75-man rosters and simply did not have the experienced depth that they need to keep their offense humming. The injuries only make matters worse.

Losing Pouncey for at least half of the season is already a problem. The fact that the Steelers had to sign Legursky to back up newly minted starter Cody Wallace is not much of a vote of confidence in fairly established veterans like Chris Hubbard.

Losing reserve center B.J. Finney to a leg injury of his own on Thursday only makes matters worse.

So, the Steelers will either have to work with what they have and hope that the injury bug doesn't strike the starting line for a second time or they will have to rebuild their depth from the ground up when league-wide roster cuts on Saturday put hundreds of players in the free-agency pool.

What we've seen of the backup linemen—particularly the tackles—hasn't been pretty at all, and the injuries have only made things uglier.

Unless otherwise noted, injury information courtesy of Steelers Depot.