There's probably a bit of calculus to drafting replacement players. It's obvious when drafting high profile players like QBs. For instance, Garoppolo for Brady, Love for Rogers, Rudolph for Ben. Teams are trying to gauge when they should draft the heir to their aging QBs, but sometimes get it wrong. Same could be said of OL and basically any position.Maybe, but given how quickly injuries happen, and as those guys got closer to 30, they seemingly did nothing to plan for a future after them.It's a bit disingenuous to cover that long of a period. In 2016, their line was Villanueva, Foster, Pouncey, DeCastro, Gilbert with Lev Bell lighting up the world. All 30 or under. That's not to say they shouldn't have addressed it in 2018/2019, but you have to give them a break there.Well yea, that's why I only went back so far. Guess how many Offensive Lineman were draft in that time that stuck around with the Steelers. Okrafor, Moore, Greene, Dotson.An average NFL career is only 3 and a bit seasons.
Since 2016 - the Steelers have drafted 6 OL - out of 53 total picks. 3 are starters, 1 back-ups (bust potential), 2 no longer play football.
If the foundation of the team starts in the trenches, the Steelers have failed miserably on the most critical side of the ball, imo.
DeCastro was terrible his last year, and I still think his sudden retirement absolutely flabbergasted the team, which is amazing.
The Steelers have recently been pretty bad at this. They waited too long for Polamalu's replacement, the OL as you speak of, the QB situation. And it appears they may screw up the DL as they don't have much in the pipeline and they still need help with the OL, LB, CB.
I never bought into the "we draft the best player available" mantra that just about every team repeats every year. Perhaps the Steelers have been a bit too stubborn with this in the 2nd and 3rd round by grabbing luxury WRs, TEs, etc. Not that they aren't hitting with those picks, but there are other needs that should be addressed first.