A lot of people expected the Pittsburgh Steelers to pick Graham Barton from Duke with the 20th pick on Thursday, myself included. Even with him still available, the Steelers took OT Troy Fautanu from Washington. So with some of the top centers still on the board to start Day 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Steelers will find a way to address the position, right?
The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly believes otherwise. He joined The PM Team on 93.7 The Fan on Friday to look ahead at tonight’s action. He was asked specifically about West Virginia C Zach Frazier, but he turned it into a dissertation on how he views the Steelers’ thoughts on the position.
“We are just hammering this center,” Kaboly said. “It seems like the only ones who care about center are us. As in everybody except for within the organization, right? It doesn’t seem like they are too concerned with that position at all. If they were, they would have taken Graham Barton, right? Have Dan Moore [Jr.] play offensive tackle for the rest of the season.”
“They must either have something in mind or they really like Nate Herbig,” Kaboly continued. “I think they’ll go wide receiver, and I wouldn’t be shocked if we leave today at midnight here and they don’t have a center even if Jackson Powers-Johnson or Zach Frazier is there at 51.”
Do the Steelers not think they have a problem at center? Or do they simply think that Troy Fautanu is such a great player they couldn’t pass him up at 20? Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said on X that Barton or OT Tyler Guyton would have been their pick if Fautanu wasn’t there.
That would simply mean that the Steelers were in love with Fautanu and couldn’t pass him up. Not that they don’t view the center position as a need. The pre-draft visits would suggest the Steelers view it as a need. They had multiple players who have either played center or are projected as centers in the NFL come to Pittsburgh for visits. That includes Powers-Johnson, Frazier, and Barton.
There are still other needs, so if the board falls a certain way, the Steelers could pursue wide receivers as Kaboly suggests. They definitely need a wide receiver capable of starting opposite George Pickens. They also need another cornerback.
However, to think that the Steelers would pass up Powers-Johnson or Frazier if they were available at 51 might be a surprise to a lot of people. And Kaboly could be right; the Steelers might pass on a center on Friday. That doesn’t mean they won’t address the position at all, though. Later-round options could include Penn State’s Hunter Nourzad, Georgia’s Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, or even South Dakota State’s Mason McCormick.
What is for sure is that Day 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft will be very interesting.
