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On March 15 the Pittsburgh Steelers announced that they have hired Isaac Williams as their new assistant offensive line coach. He comes to the Steelers via North Carolina Central University, where he worked as offensive line coach in 2021.
In its press release, the Steelers note that “Williams guided North Carolina Central’s offensive line during a year when the school recorded (its) first winning season since 2017. The school finished second in the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference, with two offensive linemen being named all-conference.”
Prior to joining North Carolina Central, Williams spent three seasons at Morgan State, where he was the tight ends coach and offensive line coach/run game coordinator. At Morgan State he helped developed Joshua Miles, who was a seventh-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals in 2019.
Before that he spent two years serving as offensive line coach at Northern Colorado, where he previously earned a master’s degree in education leadership.
As for his playing career, Williams was a four-year starter and three-time captain at Alcorn State (2008-11), earning all-conference honors in both his junior and senior seasons. He went on to play one season with the Laredo Rattlesnakes of the Arena Football League in 2013 where he was a defensive end and center.
Going forward Williams will be working alongside new Steelers offensive line coach Pat Meyer as the pair try to improve an offensive line that finished 31st and 30th in the NFL in pass block and run block win rate in 2021.
The duo will have at least two new linemen to work with in 2022, as the Steelers have already come to contract agreements with two unrestricted free agents: former Bears second-round pick James Daniels; and former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals center Mason Cole.
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Steelers Awarded 1 Compensatory Draft Pick
Meanwhile, on March 15, the NFL awarded a total of 39 compensatory draft picks in the 2022 NFL Draft. The Steelers received one of those selections—the first comp pick of the fourth round (No. 138 overall).
Yet it was a disappointing outcome considering that team was initially projected to receive a pair of compensatory picks: a third-rounder for outside linebacker Bud Dupree signing a five-year, $82.5 million contract with the Tennessee Titans; and a fifth-rounder for Matt Feiler inking a three-year, $21 million deal with the Los Angeles Chargers.
The downgrade to a single fourth-round pick was not unexpected, however. Revised projections by Nick Korte of overthecap.com from January 2022 indicated that the compensation for Dupree might be reduced because the former first-round pick did not play enough snaps in 2021 for the Steelers to qualify for the higher level of compensation.
Meanwhile, those same projections indicated that the Steelers might lose the fifth-round pick for Matt Feiler because Steelers free agent acquisition Joe Haeg played just enough snaps in 2021 to cancel out the Feiler pick.
The Steelers Have 7 Selections in the 2022 NFL Draft
Currently, Pittsburgh has its own selections in the first, second, third and seventh rounds of the 2022 NFL Draft, plus the aforementioned compensatory pick in the fourth round. The Steelers also possess a conditional sixth-rounder from Kansas City for Melvin Ingram (via Baltimore) and a seventh-rounder from the New York Jets as a result of the Avery Williamson trade, which was consummated on November 1, 2020.
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