Shortly after Thursday’s ruckus with Joe Brady being introduced as the Buffalo Bills new head coach and Josh Allen making his first public appearance since the 2025 season’ sheartbreaking end, Brady made his first staff hire.
According to NFL Insider Ian Rapoport, the Bills have hired former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line coach Pat Meyer for the same role.
This will be Meyer’s second stint with the Bills, having worked as an offensive assistant with the franchise in 2015 and 2016. He spent the past four seasons with the Steelers, and now moves up to Buffalo to help keep one of the league’s strongest offensive lines as such, and hopefully improve it too.
Joe Brady hires Steelers Pat Meyer as Bills' OL coach
Depending on which Steeler fan you hear it from, you might not get a favorable review of Meyer’s time in Pittsburgh. That said, it’s important to put context to his most recent position.
The Steelers' offensive line was horrendous when Meyer took over in 2022. The Steelers’ front allowed 38 sacks the year before and ranked 29th in rushing. Afterward, the Steelers invested in their offensive line through the draft and free agency. No one from the 2021 offensive line is still with the team.
These days, Steelers fans are rather excited about the future of the offensive line. Broderick Jones showed steady improvement before a season-ending injury last season in his first season as the clear-cut starting left tackle. On the right side, Troy Fautanu has been a slam-dunk of a first-round pick, even after missing nearly his entire rookie season. Zach Frazier has quickly developed into one of the league’s top centers. And Mason McCormick is a hard-nosed, mid-round pick worthy of wearing No. 66 at guard, where a lot of history rides with that number and position in Pittsburgh.
None of that happens without Meyer. That said, Steelers fans still had room to gripe about Meyer’s abilities. The Steelers never had a top-10 rushing offense during his time in Pittsburgh, and the team consistently hovered around 40 sacks per season, 49 in 2024. Aaron Rodgers was sacked just 31 times in 2025, but that covered up just how much pressure the 42-year-old quarterback was facing each week and how he combatted it by getting the ball out of his hands faster than almost every other quarterback in the league.
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Still, it was a young offensive line from day one for Meyer in Pittsburgh. Of course, in Buffalo, he won’t have to do quite as much developing right off the bat.
It will be interesting to see how Meyer meshes with an offensive line that is largely put together, especially if the team manages to re-sign center Connor McGovern and left guard David Andrews this offseason. Otherwise, he’s guaranteed to be working with two elite offensive tackles and an underappreciated mauler at right guard in O’Cyrus Torrence.
Either way, Meyer will be expected to offer better results in Buffalo. It’s a tall task to follow Aaron Kromer in commanding the Bills' offensive line. Kromer built that elite offensive line that has protected Josh Allen well and opened wide rushing lanes for James Cook. The line did take a step back in pass protection in 2025, so the most important task for Meyer from Bills Mafia is to protect Allen better in 2026 and beyond. Do that, and Bills fans will show much more appreciation for Meyer than Pittsburgh did.