Steelers' James Daniels Is Right Where He Needs To Be Thanks To Some Brotherly Love And Critique

Steeler Nation has to admit that one of the areas of the team in which most of us were most worried was one of the most consistent once they hit their stride during the 2022 season. There's still a lot of room for improvement up front, but the team's offensive line play in 2022 was much improved compared to the previous season. Steeler fans can thank Daniels' consistency and leadership for that! 

Daniels is right where he needs to be and that's in Pittsburgh helping lead a young offensive unit, hopefully back into Super Bowl contention in the near future. Even with his consistent play this season, Daniels still faces some criticism, but none harsher, but filled with love, than what has come from his former teammate and brother, LeShun Daniels Jr. The Daniels brothers had the amazing opportunity to be teammates from youth football up to college ball at the University of Iowa. 

The two brothers loved being able to play college football, not only on the same team at the same time, but also on the same side of the ball:

"That was sick. I'm not going to lie," LeShun Daniels Jr. said via Steelers.com. "It's an honor to play college football to begin with, especially at the Power-5, Big Ten level. To do it on the same team and on the same side of the ball was awesome. It was great for my family for traveling and stuff. They didn't have to go to two different locations on Saturdays. It was just cool to see both of us continue to develop as football players and have a blast playing football and doing it together."

LeShun Daniels Jr. admittedly is his brothers' biggest critic and it has seemingly always been that way, even back to their days at Iowa together:

"I usually got on him more than some of the other offensive linemen because obviously we were way more familiar with each other," LeShun Jr. stated. "I definitely gave James a bunch of crap if he would mess up something, whether it would be a regular run play or a pass protection and I've got to try to cover for him or make a guy miss in the backfield. I definitely let him hear about it almost every single time."

LeShun Daniels Jr. has moved on from his football playing days now, as he is now a video game designer for EA Sports, but he still lets the Steelers' guard know when he has missed a blocking assignment after game days. 

"He would. He definitely would," James Daniels said. "He would be, 'I'm going to be honest. I expect you to make every block, no matter who it is or what they do. I expect you to make every block.' He couldn't say that to anyone else. He still says it to me now. He'll text me now after a game. 'I saw this. I don't care what happened. That's a minus on the grade sheet.' He does the same exact stuff now."

On Super Bowl Sunday, in which two brothers will face off against each other in the biggest game of the year, what do yinz think about this story of brotherly love and critique involving Steelers' guard James Daniels and his brother LeShun Daniels Jr.?