Ever since Mason Cole was released by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Feb. 23, the need for a starting center has been very apparent. The team was reportedly very interested in bringing in veteran C Mitch Morse to help bridge the gap to their center of the future, but he signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The rest of the center market moved fast in free agency, and now the Steelers are in a position where they must take one in the first round or two of the 2024 NFL Draft. If they wait until day two, West Virginia C Zach Frazier could be an option.
In a recent episode of The Krueg Show on Sunday, NFL analyst Brian Baldinger discussed Frazier as a center prospect and dropped an interesting nugget of information from his discussions with an unnamed NFL executive.
“I texted a personnel director the first day I watched him, and I just said, can Zach Frazier start at center for you? And he goes, right now,” Baldinger said in a clip from the podcast posted on X. “Yeah, he’s our starting center…literally texting me back in real-time. He could be our starting center.”
This is encouraging to hear, as the Steelers could very well end up with Frazier, but it might be a bad sign if they were hoping to wait until the second round to draft him. There are a number of center-needy teams this year, and with three main centers who are viewed to be starter-ready prospects, they might be in a tough position if they decide to address another position in the first round.
For example, the question from Larry Krueger that prompted this response from Baldinger was about whether he could see the 49ers drafting Frazier with the 31st pick in the first round. Chances are good that Frazier will be the third center off the board behind Graham Barton and Jackson Powers-Johnson, so if Frazier is being looked at as a first-rounder, the Steelers will be forced to take one early and miss out on some of the top tackle prospects.
One thing potentially working in the Steelers’ favor if they are hoping for Frazier to fall to them in the second round is his mediocre testing numbers at the Big 12 pro day. He ran a 5.26-second 40-yard dash and posted underwhelming numbers in some of the agility drills. To be fair to Frazier, he is just now getting healthy from a broken leg suffered last November and didn’t have as much time as other prospects to prepare.
For an in-depth scouting report on Frazier, check out our Alex Kozora’s scouting report below:
