The NFL draft is right around the corner, and the Pittsburgh Steelers still don’t have a starting center. Considering how the team seems to want to be more dominant and physical running the ball this year, they’re not going to want to walk out of the draft without fixing that issue.
Luckily, this year’s talent at center is fairly strong at the top, with players like Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson and West Virginia’s Zach Frazier being some of the top names discussed. However, a few other players at different positions have been generating buzz as candidates who could be centers at the NFL level.
Duke’s Graham Barton did play center in college, but that was in 2020, and he has primarily been a left tackle since then. Washington’s Troy Fautanu, who was not a center at all in college, has also reportedly garnered interest from teams who see him as a center at the next level.
Some Steelers fans may be a little hesitant to see a player moved from their natural position to play center after the Kendrick Green fiasco, but both these players are significantly more skilled than Green coming out of college. That doesn’t mean the process would be easy though.
Mike Golic Jr., a former offensive lineman and current analyst, recently joined the Take Command podcast and spoke about the difficulties that come with forcing an offensive lineman to switch positions.
”It’s a really difficult transition. Zach Martin did such a disservice for this when he came out of Notre Dame and went from left tackle to right guard because having to flip everything like that in your head is something not everyone is capable of. I think it’s super individual,” Golic said about switching an offensive lineman’s position, as he spent much of his time playing football bouncing around positions in order to provide more value.
Steelers fans have seen that story play out far too often in recent years, not only with Green but with Kevin Dotson and Broderick Jones, too. Dotson had a promising start to his time in Pittsburgh but began to lose favor with the team and was traded to the Rams, where he had an excellent season playing his more natural position at right guard.
Jones is supposed to be the team’s franchise left tackle, but he spent almost all of his rookie season at right tackle. Golic discusses this more in-depth later, discussing how this process can be better or worse for players with less experience.
“If you get a guy that’s young without a lot of reps and is pretty raw, do you wanna air on what he’s most comfortable with because he’s still learning, or do you take that time and say, hey, if I’ve got a good teacher and we’ve got a great athlete here, he’s gonna absorb that better than most,” Golic said of switching a player’s position when they don’t have as much experience as opposed to reaffirming what he’s already learned. “ I tend to side with the latter on that. If you’ve got a guy that doesn’t have a ton of starts under his belt, is more of that ball of clay, then you take your opportunity.”
Golic’s point is that it’s easier to move a guy when he isn’t familiar with only playing one position, which could be a good sign that Barton, who initially switched from center to left tackle, could still play center at a high level. Later in that same podcast, he stated that he believes Fautanu has incredible potential at center, providing hope there as well.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be ideal for the Steelers to have to move a player to center rather than drafting one of the true centers, but sometimes life gives you lemons, and you have to try to make lemonade. There’s no guarantee the Steelers will be able to draft a player like Frazier or Powers-Johnson, but they desperately need a center.
It won’t matter who the quarterback is if the ball is getting snapped over their head or at their shoelaces. Success starts up front.
