The idea along any offensive line is to play the best five, but the ideal lines are often ones that feature a veteran presence upon which younger players can rely.
The Steelers' veteran presence up front begins and ends with Isaac Seumalo.
And that makes Seumalo a player who is as appreciated as much for who he is and what he's done as he is counted upon at left guard.
"It's not like we have a ton of veterans in there," second-year center Zach Frazier observed. "So it's really crucial for all of us young players."
Seumalo, who will turn 32 on Oct. 29, is entering his 10th NFL season and his third with the Steelers. He's started 90 of 111 career regular-season games in the NFL since being drafted out of Oregon State on the third round by the Eagles in 2016, including his last 84 in succession. And his postseason resume includes an appearance in Super Bowl LII (a 41-33 victory over the Patriots) and a start at right guard in Super Bowl LVII (a 38-35 loss to the Chiefs).
The rest of the Steelers' projected starting offensive line (left tackle Broderick Jones, Frazier, right guard Mason McCormick and right tackle Troy Fautanu) has a combined 67 career regular-season games and 57 career regular-season starts under its collective belt.
Offensive line coach Pat Meyer knows full well what Seumalo can provide, given the configuration of a line with such relative inexperience, and how qualified Seumalo is to deliver what's required.
"His knowledge of the game is really superior to a lot of players," Meyer insisted. "I would say he's as smart and football-intelligent as an offensive lineman that I've ever coached in 28 years of coaching. He's smart and he's just detailed. That's upbringing, his dad's a coach, it's just the way he was brought up.
"It's just another set of eyes and ears and it's a voice. It's like, I'm telling the guys something, I'm explaining it to them and they're like, 'OK, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.' 'Hey Isaac, how would you say it to them?' And he'll say something like, 'Exactly what coach said, here's what we gotta do.'
"When it comes from a player that they respect it means a lot. So a lot of times I'll just be like, 'Hey bro, you got anything to add to that?' He's like, 'No, what he said is how we gotta do this and that.' That part of it's obviously a big part of it.
"And he's a really good player."
It would be overstating it to describe Seumalo's leadership style as vocal.
"He's quiet but you ask him anything, he'll do everything to help," Frazier said. "I wouldn't say intimidating, he's just not very talkative.
"He definitely talks about things he's seen."
Seumalo often chooses not to speak with the media. But he was ever-present, or so it seemed, during Mandatory Veteran Minicamp, regularly standing in the vicinity of Jones hitting a sled or McCormick and Fautanu working a double-team sequence.
And when speaking, Seumalo absolutely commands attention.
"Definitely the highest respect for him," Frazier emphasized.
Added Meyer: "All the good lines I've been around, the veteran guys who are good players who love the game of football are the ones that are the detailed guys, the ones that the young guys kind of look up to and they kind if emulate," Meyer maintained. "And then, guess what? Five years down the line, eight years down the line they're the same guy and they're talking about Isaac.
"He's been, obviously, a great asset to us."
