Amid chaos of injuries and rookies on Steelers’ O-line, James Daniels quietly the unit’s rock

Spencer Anderson was relaxing and enjoying the good food and good company of a unit dinner for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense Thursday evening when his phone began blowing up.

No, not social media notifications. Not fan mail.

It was veteran teammate James Daniels.

“I’m sitting there,” Anderson said after Friday’s practice, “and James sends me and (rookie center Zach Frazier) in a group chat a bunch of clips of, “Hey, look at this right here,’ or, ‘Hey, look at that,’ or, ‘Look how this linebacker plays this interior guy… Look how the d-end plays it… Watch when they’re in this personnel.’

“I can pull out my phone — it’s at least eight clips, like 15 seconds long, him rewinding it back and forth. And he sends this to me and Zach.”

Daniels, a seven-year NFL veteran guard, was offering up an unsolicited (but appreciated) teaching presentation on how to best prepare for Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers.

Considering Daniels went into last week’s game with the three other O-line starters lined up closest to him combining for all of two NFL starts, he views such duties as part of his job description.

Only Isaac Seumalo has more games or seasons of NFL experience among Steelers offensive linemen than Daniels, who is in his third season with the team and will be making his 83rd career start Sunday during the home opener against the Los Angeles Chargers.

“I just know that as a younger player, the hardest thing for a younger player is to have no one to look up to,” said Daniels, who despite his significant pro experience just turned 27 last week. “So for me, I just try to come in every day and be a good (leader).

“I mean, Isaac is great, I look up to Isaac. But right now (with Seumalo not playing because of a pectoral injury), the younger players need people to look up to. And I just realize how important it is, how I operate, how I see the film and what I do on the practice field and things like that. So I just try to be a good role model.”

The Steelers offensive line has swirled in seeming chaos so far this season. The first-team center through the first three weeks of training camp (Nate Herbig) suffered a season-ending injury. Seumalo on Sunday will miss a third consecutive game to open the season. Starting tackles Dan Moore Jr. and Troy Fautanu have missed time because of injury, too — and the Steelers this week might be forced to ping-pong back from Fautanu to Broderick Jones to start at right tackle after Fautanu suffered an injury Friday.

Aside from four-year veteran Moore at left tackle, offensive linemen other from Daniels who have started games for the Steelers have just two (Anderson), two (Frazier), one (Fautanu) and 12 (Jones) career starts.

That has made Daniels’ steadying influence so valuable.

“He’s just filling us in on stuff he sees,” said Anderson, who is filling in for Seumalo at left guard, “because obviously he sees the game differently than me and Zach do. We have (very little) game experience, so obviously James in Year 7 sees the game a little more clear and it is slower to him. So he just tries to help us out with everything.

“Whenever he points something out, even (Friday) when we were out at practice, he was like, ‘Pay attention to this,’ or, ‘Pay attention to that,’ because we have got to have a certain look. He picks up on a lot of tidbits and keys.”

Daniels’ intangibles during a tumultuous period for the Steelers’ offensive line is one thing. But on the field, Daniels is taking care of business, too.

Daniels ranks fourth among NFL guards and centers in ESPN’s “run block win rate” metric. Pro Football Focus grades Daniels as the NFL’s best run-blocking starting guard through two weeks of the season and the third-best starting guard overall.

Embarking on the final year of a three-year, $26.5 million contract, Daniels downplays suggestions that during this contract year, he is off to one of his best starts as a pro.

“I just think I have been playing well — but there is still a whole lot of stuff I can do a lot better,” Daniels said. “There’s a whole bunch of stuff I can do way better than what I have been doing. So that’s why every week I am just going to try to just keep on improving, and if I do that it will help the whole O-line and the entire offense become better.”