Steelers should pounce on elite left tackle who is expected to be released

The Pittsburgh Steelers have had their offensive line struggles for what feels like forever now. The two biggest weak points along the starting five are the center and left tackle positions. The Steelers drafted Broderick Jones in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, and it is unclear what side he will play on in 2024. Jones was drafted as a left tackle, but after Chukwuma Okorafor was benched in 2023, Jones took over as the starting right tackle. This left Dan Moore Jr. as the team's starting blindside protector, and he has been graded as one of the worst in the league at his position. The Steelers need to upgrade the left tackle spot, and they may have a chance to do so. 

Steelers Should Go After Expected Free Agent David Bakhtiari

Every offseason, teams go through a lot of changeovers. Sometimes that involves moving on from a player that has shown their age, been riddled with injuries, or got signed to a bad contract. 

Two out of those three reasons are the case for the Green Bay Packers and left tackle David Bakhtiari. He has had an unfortunate time with injuries over the last five seasons, and his current cap hit for the 2024 NFL season is nearly $40 million. Matt Schneidman of The Athletic recently wrote about the likelihood of Green Bay moving on from their franchise left tackle.

"Bakhtiari hopes whatever surgery he had after playing only the season opener in 2023 will finally put him in the clear, but the Packers are getting younger and can’t reasonably afford banking on Bakhtiari’s knee at his current price. The Packers will assuredly trade or release Bakhtiari, maybe the New York Jets fork over a late-round pick to reunite Bakhtiari with his old golf cart buddy Aaron Rodgers, and that’s not a joke."

Bakhtiari has been with the Packers since they drafted him in 2013. He has started every game he has played in, which obviously led to him forming a strong relationship with Aaron Rodgers. The New York Jets also need offensive line help, but they would never trade for him due to his cap hit and recent injury history. The Jets know a thing or two about paying a guy a lot of money just for him to unfortunately get hurt, and it's probable they don't want to make that mistake again. 

Bakhtiari has been named to an All-Pro team five times in his career, and there was a time before his injuries when he was worth his luxurious price tag. Bakhtiari's injury history is extensive, he tore his ACL towards the end of the 2020 regular season. 

This caused him to miss the majority of the 2021 season, in 2022 he missed the end of the regular season due to an emergency appendectomy. He was healthy coming into the 2023 season but re-injured his knee in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears. 

Bakhtiari being released by Green Bay is all but done. The organization would save $21 million in cap space by releasing him, it's a no-brainer. That means he would hit the open market, so that begs the question, is the risk of signing Bakhtiari worth the reward for the Steelers?

Absolutely. Almost anything is an upgrade from Moore Jr. at the left tackle position. Bakhtiari showed is still capable of being one of the better offensive linemen in the NFL during his Week 1 performance against the Bears. He received a 78.3 overall grade from PFF and received a pristine 89.9 pass blocking grade. Despite his injuries, he can still hold his own. 

Tyron Smith of the Dallas Cowboys is a year older than Bakhtiari and is currently the top free agent who plays left tackle, his market value sits at $7.4 million annually. Smith was named a Second-Team All-Pro in 2023, so Bakhtiari would not be making as much as him. Bakhtiari would be very cheap for Pittsburgh, and if he is able to stay healthy it would be a steal.