Before the 2024 NFL draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers had a massive hole at center, cutting previous starter Mason Cole earlier in the offseason and missing out on all of the major free agents at the position. Now, that problem is solved with the team drafting Zach Frazier in the second round, a gritty player who feels like he was always meant to suit up for the Steelers.
However, Frazier did suffer a pretty severe injury during his last season at West Virginia, breaking his leg. While all signs are pointing toward Frazier being sufficiently recovered, it raises questions about who the team’s center will be if he gets injured at any point this year.
Nate Herbig was slated to be the team’s center before the draft, but he’s really much more of a guard. The Steelers’ real backup center may be another 2024 draft pick in Mason McCormick. McCormick was announced as a guard when the Steelers selected him in the fourth round, but in a recent interview on the Jackrabbit Illustrated YouTube channel, Ryan Olson, McCormick’s offensive coordinator in college, stated that the Steelers did work him out as a center shortly before the draft took place.
”They came out on Tuesday before the draft. So they flew their offensive coordinator and their offensive line coach to Brookings to work him out at specifically center. Which, on one hand, he doesn’t have any tape at center. He’s done it at practice at times, and he’s worked on it on his own a lot, so you can understand why they’d want to see it,” Olson said about the Steelers wanting one last detailed look at McCormick’s abilities as a center. “The one thing that I said to somebody else, I’ve been doing this for a little while and we’ve been around some good players, and we got some good ones here, I’ve never seen somebody fly an OC and a position coach.”
While the team may see McCormick as a guard now, that may only be a result of them managing to land Frazier in the second round. McCormick last played center in high school, so perhaps there would be some worries among fans that he’d be another Kendrick Green, but apparently, he was working in some capacity on his own time to expand his versatility.
Clearly, based on Olson’s analysis, the Steelers had heavy interest in McCormick, and later in the interview, he describes more of what the team’s interaction with McCormick was like.
”Based on that, we thought it might be a Day 2 thing if they’re gonna do that four days before the draft. Because God knows they got a lot of other stuff they would be busy with, too, so they know he’s a priority. And obviously working him out at center, and that was what they told him, they said, ‘We’re looking at you at that position,’” Olson said about the Steelers telling McCormick they had interest in him as a center, not a guard. “I was just surprised seeing that they took the center on Day 2. I thought I probably could cross that off the list, and we’re looking at these other teams that we knew had guard needs. So to see them come back and take him, I think that tells you what they thought about him.”
Based on everything Olson has said, it seems the Steelers loved McCormick as a prospect so much that they wanted to draft him as a center, but when a different center fell into their laps earlier in the draft, they had to come back and take McCormick when he was still available.
McCormick does have several traits that profile him as a guard that will succeed in the NFL, so having that last minute look at him and ultimately drafting him may be moves that everyone looks back on and praises.
Sending not only the offensive line coach but also the offensive coordinator just days before the draft says everything both about what the Steelers think of McCormick and how badly they knew they needed to upgrade at center. Now, they have two players on the roster who they feel comfortable playing at center.
With McCormick not needing to play right away, the team could help him develop further as either a guard or center, or both. That kind of versatility is key come playoff time, as injuries start to pile up and adjustments have to be made. We’ll see where McCormick ends up playing as a Steeler, but no matter what, it seems the organization believes they got their guy.
