SEPTEMBER 3: When speaking to the media on Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed (via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor) Seumalo will miss the team’s season opener. He is week-to-week beyond that, however, so a return to the lineup could take place sooner than his initial timeline suggested.
SEPTEMBER 1: The Steelers will be without their top-rated offensive lineman from 2023 for a time. Starting left guard Isaac Seumalo sustained a pectoral injury in practice late last month, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Schefter subsequently noted that the injury was not a season-ender – torn pecs often are, though Pittsburgh star edge rusher T.J. Watt was a notable exception to that rule in 2022 – but it was not immediately apparent how much time Seumalo would miss. Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network later reported that the 30-year-old blocker would be sidelined for four weeks.
Assuming that four-week timeline holds true, Seumalo would be forced to sit out the first three games of the season and would be ready to return for the Steelers’ Week 4 contest against the Colts. That explains why the team has not put him on injured reserve, which requires that a player miss at least four games.
In Seumalo’s absence, 2023 seventh-rounder Spencer Anderson and fourth-round rookie Mason McCormick will vie for the left guard gig, as Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted. Anderson, who appeared in just two offensive snaps in his rookie season, will get the first look, with McCormick hoping to overtake him on the depth chart. If McCormick should impress, it is at least within the realm of possibility that he will remain at LG when Seumalo returns, with Seumalo kicking over to RG (left guard is the only position McCormick played in college, while Seumalo has pro experience at right guard).
Seumalo, a third-round pick of the Eagles in 2016, signed a three-year, $24MM deal with the Steelers last March. The Oregon State product performed well in his first year in Pittsburgh, grading out as Pro Football Focus’ 12th-best guard out of 79 qualified players. He was charged with just one penalty in a full 17-game slate, and PFF’s evaluation showed that he yielded zero sacks (though he did give up 26 total pressures).
2023 marked the second straight year in which Seumalo enjoyed perfect attendance, which was a welcome change of pace after he played in just 12 total games across the 2020-21 seasons. While he will not play a full season in 2024, a healthy and productive return to the field would obviously bolster his chances of finishing out his Steelers contract and earning his $6.88MM salary and $1MM roster bonus in 2025 (no guaranteed money remains on his deal).