With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 season over, the team finishing above .500 but failing to make the postseason, we have turned our attention to the offseason. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on broader contexts, reflecting on a player’s development, either positively or negatively, over the course of the season. Other evaluations will reflect only one immediate event or trend. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: OL Spencer Anderson
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: Rookie seventh-round offensive lineman Spencer Anderson’s stock is up for one simple reason: the Steelers are setting him up to be able to compete for a roster spot in the only way he can find room, at center.
Ever since he was drafted, Spencer Anderson has been asked questions about playing center. How much experience he has there. How comfortable he is playing there. How much time he spends working on the position.
Most of his college playing experience came at tackle, specifically right tackle, followed by guard, but he also made several starts at center. His calling card is his versatility, which wasn’t exactly the case for arguably his most direct competition this summer, Kendrick Green.
Speaking of Green, he is also working extensively at center this offseason, seemingly exclusively up to this point, with the Steelers having moved on from J.C. Hassenauer as their top backup. Barring a change, the ninth lineman will likely come down to who between Anderson and Green looks the most comfortable at center, because they don’t have another notable reserve lineman on the roster properly experienced at center.
Nate Herbig could technically be a potential candidate, but his experience at center has come during preseason games. The Steelers also have two starting guards who know how to play center, especially James Daniels, who was a college center and started there earlier in his NFL career. But they don’t want to shuffle multiple spots to address one issue.
That’s where Anderson needs to come in if he is to make the team. While he is also capable of playing tackle and guard—at least theoretically—he has no hope of claiming one of the top reserve spots there behind Dan Moore Jr. and Herbig or Kevin Dotson, respectively.
Establishing himself at center gives him the best chance later this summer to compete for a job. It’s not the first time the Steelers have drafted a versatile lineman and focused him in on playing center to begin with. They did the same with Wesley Johnson all the way back in 2014, who went on to have a decent little career—outside of Pittsburgh, after being claimed off waivers.
