Buy Or Sell: Steelers fans are overstating the case for the necessity of a great center.
Explanation: The Steelers have a great tradition of centers, and great center play has coincided with great line play overall. At the same time, Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawson, and Maurkice Pouncey also played with great linemen. And many great offensive lines have only ever had a serviceable center, not an exceptional one.
Buy:
As nice as it is to have a great center, it’s about the least important position on offense in need of greatness. The only thing that you need your center to do is to snap consistently. A lot of unremarkable centers can consistently snap the football—better than some great ones, like Maurkice Pouncey. The Steelers know a thing or two about that.
The center is the easiest player to hide on offense because they relatively rarely block one-on-one. They’re usually helping one of the guards, if anything. Even Pouncey did the same things, looking for work and helping David DeCastro and Ramon Foster. And no, you don’t need a pulling center—a pulling guard does the trick just as well.
And here’s the thing: chasing greatness at center leaves you with less than great at greater positions. Drafting a center in the first round means the Steelers lose out on a great right tackle, which is more valuable. Just because they don’t have a better answer at center right now doesn’t mean they need a generational talent. That’s buying the restaurant because you found a fly in your soup: an overreaction to address a fixable problem.
Sell:
While it’s true that you can hide a center more than most positions, you can’t hide them all the time. Defenses know where your weak links are, and if your center is the weak link on your line, they’re going to exploit him. Because of his additional responsibilities, you also need a center with a quick recovery time. Pouncey struggled with powerful nose tackles, so the Steelers’ opponents manufactured one-on-ones.
Here’s the thing about a great center: it’s about what they add on top, and how they expand your arsenal. If you have a guard who can pull and consistently work to the second level, you open so much of the field. Maybe there is some exaggeration, and maybe a great center isn’t the most important thing. But it’s still awfully important, and a great center makes your guards better, too. And the Steelers historically know how to make use of a skilled, mobile center, so it won’t go wasted on them.
With the Steelers’ 2023 season in the rearview mirror following a disappointing year that came up short in the playoffs once again, it’s time to start asking more questions. Questions about the team’s future in 2024 and beyond. Questions about The Standard.
The rookie class of a year ago was on the whole impressive, but they need to step up into staple starters in 2024. And they likely need a strong influx of talent in both free agency and in the 2024 NFL Draft yet again. In addition to a revisitation of the coaching staff.
These sorts of uncertainties are what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
