Andy Weidl wants to help the Pittsburgh Steelers get back to their roots.

Not just by winning a playoff game for the first time since 2016 or returning to the Super Bowl after a 12-year drought, but by doing it with a team ripped from prior generations.

As evidenced by the NFL Draft, his first since joining the organization as assistant general manager, the Mt. Lebanon native is doing his part to recapture the image of a tough, dominating football team that defined the Steelers when they won four titles in the 1970s and two more in the 2000s.

“We’re going to be big, we’re going to be physical, we’re going to be tough, we’re going to impose our will on teams,” Weidl said Friday at a news conference to discuss his role in last weekend’s draft. “It’s the Pittsburgh Steelers, right? We’re going to break the other teams in the second half of games.

“You’re going to be able to win on the road. That’s what we’re building. That’s what we have here. That’s what we’ve been in the past, and we will continue that identity.”

That type of football might seem antiquated in today’s NFL, which features high-powered offenses quarterbacked by mobile passers and is aimed at producing video game-like scoring and yardage totals. And the Steelers play in a conference with some of the NFL’s most prolific teams: Kansas City, Buffalo and Cincinnati, to name a few.

Weidl, though, thinks old school still has a place in the NFL landscape. He joined the Steelers from an organization, the Philadelphia Eagles, that reached the Super Bowl last year by blending a highly productive offense with physicality in the trenches.

“That works in this business,” Weidl said. “The physical, tough, smart player. Strategic thinkers you can take on the road that you feel good about when you’re on the bus going to the stadium. That’s what we’re going to continue to add to this team.”

Weidl was part of a war room that led to the Steelers drafting three big-bodied players — at left tackle, tight end and defensive tackle — plus a tall, physical cornerback with their first four picks. The Steelers rounded out their draft class with an undersized-yet-hard-hitting outside linebacker, another tall corner and a versatile offensive lineman.

That the Steelers emphasized those positions was not a coincidence.

“I just think it starts up front,” Weidl said. “It’s football. I was an offensive lineman, and I know when you’re strong up front, you can control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and you’ve got a chance to win games.

“If you’re strong on the offensive line, strong on the defensive line, strong in the front seven, they travel well in this business. I’ve seen it. You’ve got to go win a game late in the season, you’ve got to go on the road and win a playoff game, they usually show up.”

It started with the Steelers trading up three spots to get Georgia’s Broderick Jones with the No. 14 overall pick. Weidl wouldn’t say how high he had Jones rated on his draft board, but he was happy general manager Omar Khan was aggressive in making the move to add the left tackle.

“To watch his performance trajectory and how he just kept getting better as the year went on, he’s a guy who has tremendous speed, balance, an ability to run and pass protect,” Weidl said. “He’s also got explosive power to displace people off the line of scrimmage. He can get up on the second level and execute blocks in space. … He’s a guy who can get there with his range and you can be different things.

“You can open up your offense more.”

The addition of Jones and his college teammate, 6-foot-7, 274-pound tight end Darnell Washington, bring a size dimension to the offensive line aimed at protecting second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett.

“One of the things you want to do is take care of the quarterback up front,” Weidl said. “Not just in the run game but pass protection. Every great passing game starts with pass protection, and we want to protect our quarterback. We’re always going to try to bring in talent to help him out.”

On defense, the Steelers added another 300-pounder to the line in Wisconsin’s Keeanu Benton. Second-round pick Joey Porter Jr. and, to a lesser extent, seventh-rounder Cory Trice, were brought in to provide size and a chance to play press coverage at cornerback.

“We’ve still got to see these guys come in on the field and perform and produce,” Weidl said, “but there is a toughness, a physicality, an athleticism to these guys.”

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