Is all the talk of first-round centers like Zach Frazier pre-draft hype?
If you take the current pulse of the draft experts, you might believe three centers will go in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, starting with Graham Barton, followed by Zach Frazier and Jackson Powers-Johnson.
Yet I couldn’t even tell you the last time three centers went in the first round—assuming they ever did. And this is not a particularly historic center class. Make no mistake, Powers-Johnson and Frazier are both very intriguing players, but are either surefire perennial Pro Bowlers? As for Barton, he played very well at left tackle in college, with some center experience. He is a deserving first-round pick, but teams may not necessarily draft him as a center.
Rarely do we see more than one center taken in the first round, at least true centers. Yet we frequently hear Powers-Johnson as a first-round candidate for the draft, while Frazier’s more recently gotten that push. Barton is bounding up the boards as well with a late surge of recognition.
But is this year exceptional in terms of how NFL teams view the center position? There aren’t a crazy amount of teams who desperately need a starter right now, and center is not a premium position. Are we just experiencing the typical pre-draft hype?
It seems every year we hear about 45 players ”won’t make it out of the first round”, which is numerically impossible. With that said, this is a bit more of a top-heavy draft class, so we could see more “first-round” players than there are first-round selections.
One thing I will note is that the free agent center market was unusually robust this offseason. But that could go either way—many teams filled their roster holes at the center position already. We can probably count on one hand the teams that would even consider drafting a first-round center this year. The Pittsburgh Steelers, of course, are one of them, and even they may pass. But if they do, they’re almost surely not getting one of the names listed above barring a trade up.
The Steelers’ 2023 season has been put out of its misery, ending as so many have before in recent years: a disappointing, blowout playoff loss. The only change-up lately is when they miss the playoffs altogether. But with the Buffalo Bills stamping them out in the Wildcard Round, they have another long offseason ahead.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Does Russell Wilson make them a Super Bowl-caliber team, or are they wasting a year? Will he play just one season in Pittsburgh before moving on, or the Steelers moving on from him? How will the team address the depth chart?
The Steelers are swirling with more questions this offseason than usual, frankly, though the major free agent list is less substantial than usual. It’s just a matter of…what happens next? Where do they go from here? How do they find the way forward?
