The Pittsburgh Steelers have a need at center, one that’s likely to be addressed in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft, which begins Thursday. While there are a number of true centers in the class, there are also players who played other positions who can move to center in the NFL. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin identified some of the traits that make players who didn’t play center in college center-capable in the NFL during a pre-draft press conference alongside general manager Omar Khan.
“Usually there’s some intellect things in terms of front identification and communication-oriented things, and they have to show an aptitude for that. Preferably, they have something in their background whether they were a backup guy that did in practice, you didn’t see them do it in a game, or maybe a guy that did it as a young guy and evolved to other positions as they’ve gotten older. Usually there’s a history of some kind there and an aptitude there that allows you to make those assumptions,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
He said size and length are “guidelines” but that there can be exceptions to the rule. Tomlin’s comments about players who began their career at center but moved to other positions are a little bit notable when you consider Duke’s Graham Barton played some center during his freshman year in 2020 before moving primarily to tackle, and Gerry Dulac reported that the Steelers view Barton as a center. He’s a potential option for Pittsburgh’s pick at No. 20 in the first round, and Tomlin’s comments lend credence to the idea that the Steelers could see him as a center.
Other players like Washington’s Troy Fautanu, another potential first-round option, is viewed as a center by at least one team while South Dakota State’s Mason McCormick played guard in college but had a pre-draft visit with the Steelers and could be a center option for the team in the middle rounds. Obviously, the center is the hub of communication for the entire offensive line, and being able to recognize fronts and potential blitzes and communicate what you’re seeing to the rest of the line is crucial. It’s one of the reasons why it can be risky to take players without experience at the position and move them to center. Balancing the idea of taking someone who might be able to play the position versus someone the team knows can play the position and has seen play the position will be important in this draft.
We’ll know just how comfortable the Steelers feel with someone like Barton moving back to center or potentially playing Fautanu at center versus taking someone with more experience at the position like Zach Frazier or Jackson Powers-Johnson come as soon as Thursday and as late as Saturday when the Steelers finalize their draft, with a center option likely to be among their selections.
