Giants could offer Week 1 problems for Steelers' reconfigured offensive line

If the Steelers are searching to find a litmus test for their revamped offensive line, they could do worse than starting the season against the New York Giants.

In 2019, only two NFL teams — the Carolina Panthers and Miami Dolphins — allowed more points per game than the Giants (28.2). Only the Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers had fewer takeaways than New York’s 16. And New York was fifth from the bottom overall against the pass (264.1 yards per game).

But there are still some challenges for the Steelers.

The Giants were fourth best in stopping the run on a yards-per-carry basis (3.8). And Markus Golden had 10 sacks last year, the most for a Giants linebacker in a season since Lawrence Taylor in 1990.

Those two areas — running the ball effectively and containing the pass rush — are what may be of chief concern to Steelers. Because they weren’t great at running the football last year. And given their lack of quarterback depth, 2019 proved how essential it is to keep Ben Roethlisberger upright.

Two players to watch on the Giants defensive front are Golden and defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence.

Lawrence is a second-year player who made the NFL’s All-Rookie team. Numbers from his first season don’t make your eyes pop. He totaled 38 tackles, 2.5 sacks, nine quarterback hits and a forced fumble. But the Clemson product played all 16 games and led New York defensive linemen in snaps.

“He’s dominant versus the run and the pass,” Tomlin said of Lawrence this week. “He’s highly conditioned for an extremely large man (6-foot-4, 342 pounds). He’s able to play a large number of snaps. His motor runs hotter than anticipated for a guy his size. He’s able to flash sideline-to-sideline chase abilities and is able to move laterally with gaps in the way that most guys his size can’t.”

The challenge for Tomlin is diagnosing where these players are aligning. There were no preseason games to scout. And the Giants coaching staff is in its first year.

As this montage illustrates, Golden (No. 44) accumulated his sacks from both edges last season and even created havoc rushing up the middle.

Lawrence (No. 97) can be seen in some of those clips of Golden. He moved up and down the line, getting sacks and pressures from various pre-snap alignments, too.

“I would imagine that a guy like Dexter Lawrence is going to play over top of a lot of people,” Tomlin said. “Just in watching Giants tape a year ago — acknowledging that it is a different staff and different schematics — you saw him moving over left guards, centers, right guards and occasionally over tackles. He is a big dude. He is uniquely active for a guy his size, and he is ridiculously agile for a guy his size.”

Giants coach Joe Judge insists he’ll continue moving around his front-seven players a lot in New York. Especially Lawrence.

“We’re going to preach versatility for all of our players at all times,” Judge said Wednesday. “Game-by-game we’ll see what the best matchup is for our players. The best opportunity to put them in a position of strength.”

One would think Judge and new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham would consider loading up on the defense’s left side in an attempt to stress the reconfigured right side of the Steelers offensive line.

Zach Banner will be making his first start as the right tackle as Matt Feiler assumes his new job at left guard. And new Steeler Stefen Wisniewski may have to start at right guard if David DeCastro is scratched with a knee injury.

For his part, offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner suggested how the Steelers handle the various looks New York unveils over the first few series may dictate what the Giants try to do the rest of the game.

“You get an idea — probably — within the first two series about how they have decided to attack our personnel groups and potentially what they think our tendencies are,” Fichtner said Thursday. “Their strength is up front. They have some really great talent in that front seven.”

One of Tomlin’s favorite phrases is “be light on our feet,” meaning to be quick to adapt. And if New York can exploit a mismatch in the trenches early, the Steelers would be wise to lean on that credo Monday night.

If not, all the offseason questions about how much the skill position players can improve with the return of Roethlisberger could be buried by new ones about the formerly rock-steady offensive line.