Right now, the most glaring hole on the Steelers roster would seem to be the backup center position. The team lacks a true center on the roster behind Mason Cole outside of Ryan McCollum, and while McCollum has been a solid pass blocker, his 48.9 run-blocking grade per PFF doesn’t look too pretty. It’s a position that the Steelers don’t really have an answer at currently, but head coach Mike Tomlin isn’t worried. Tomlin told Bob Labriola per Steelers.com that he’s “comfortable” with Pittsburgh’s center options.
“We’re really comfortable with the number of candidates we have. We’ve got some guys with real NFL experience there. Nate Herbig has been a guy who’s played center at this level. Kendrick Green is a guy who has been a starting center at this level. We’ve got a couple of other guys who are center-capable. Ryan McCollum is center-capable. Spencer Anderson is center-capable, and so we’ve probably got more depth in terms of guys who are capable and also more depth with guys with experience than I can recall.”
Herbig is likely the favorite, and he’ll probably also be the top backup at both guard spots. Green was a starting center, but not a very good one, and he’s had a terrible preseason at the position. Anderson is a rookie who can play all over the line, and I’m not sure how confident I’d be if he was the top option behind Cole.
While Herbig is the best option as far as a pure blocker, he doesn’t have much center experience, playing just 17 snaps in his career. He has yet to receive a center snap in the preseason, but Tomlin said he’d be willing to play a center who didn’t get reps at the position in the preseason.
“If I had to, certainly. If he’s got larger experience that makes me comfortable, and I’ve seen things within the practice setting that makes me comfortable, then certainly,” Tomlin said.
Herbig’s experience would’ve primarily come in practice, and it seems pretty clear that as long as Tomlin likes what he’s seen and continues to see out of Herbig, he’s probably going to be the guy at backup center.
Tomlin also isn’t outright going to say that the position has issues, so just because he says now they’re comfortable doesn’t preclude them from adding an outside free agent on cutdown day. Historically, the Steelers usually add from the outside to build their 53-man roster, and backup center is the position that seemingly needs to be addressed the most.
We’ll see if Herbig can return from injury and if he logs any center snaps tonight against the Atlanta Falcons. That will likely cement him as the team’s top internal option at the position. But I don’t think we’ll have a full idea of what the position looks like until the end of next week, with cutdown day and the ensuing madness commencing on Tuesday.
