The Pittsburgh Steelers revamped their offensive line in a big way during the 2024 NFL Draft, adding three offensive linemen with their first five picks. They kicked off the draft by taking OT Troy Fautanu at No. 20 overall, then added C Zach Frazier in the second round before selecting Mason McCormick in the fourth round. All three of them are taking part in Pittsburgh’s rookie minicamp this weekend, and they’re well on their way to forming a bond.
According to The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo, Frazier picked up McCormick and Fautanu and drove them to minicamp in his truck, and Frazier talked about the offensive line being a brotherhood and forming friendships with his fellow linemen in a video posted to Twitter by Aaron Becker of Yardbarker.
“I feel like offensive line, it’s a brotherhood,” Frazier said. “That’s how it’s been everywhere I’ve been, whether it’s high school, college or even here. So I think we’re gonna be great friends, I can already tell.”
He said that building relationships on and off the field will make the unit play better, and that’s how you build cohesion among a line.
“I think it’s just developing relationships, on and off the field, the closer you are as a unit, the better you play together. And then obviously, the more reps you get together on the field, that’s how you get better on the field as well,” Frazier said via Steelers.com.
With three rookies coming in and competing for a role, all three guys have similar experience as they go through practice and the trials of tribulations of the offseason and then the season together. Frazier said that will benefit the collective as they’re all sharing experiences.
“We can all just learn together. We’re all in the same boat, we’re all going through the same things, it’s not like one person’s going through it,” he said. “We got three guys together going through the same thing, learning the same stuff.”
Fautanu shouted out McCormick, who played right guard, next to Fautanu who worked at right tackle. He called himself “fortunate” to have McCormick next to him and talked about the importance of getting the offensive line to play as a “collective five.”
“Oh man, he’s a beast,” Fautanu said about McCormick via Becker. “I’m fortunate enough to have guys like that next to me, and right now we’re just trying to work on making sure that we can gel together, ’cause you can’t play o-line independently. It’s a collective five out there, and right now I just try to make sure that I gain those guys’ trust.”
Fautanu also echoed Frazier’s sentiments about the three rookie draftees learning together on the line.
“We’re all trying to learn the system. We’ve never been in the NFL, we don’t know what it’s like, but being able to navigate that together is something I wouldn’t trade for the world. Having Zach and Mason out here with me and me being alongside them is something that not a lot of guys get,” Fautanu said via Steelers.com.
Getting the linemen to bond is going to be key for the Steelers, and it sounds as if that won’t be a problem. Playing on the line is almost like being part of your own team of five guys in the trenches. Knowing they have your back and you have theirs is incredibly important. Former Steelers OL and Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva compared the camaraderie of the offensive line to a military platoon, and with three rookies who have yet to play together, it’s going to be important for them to bond and have that trust and faith in each other as a collective.
It’s going to be similarly important when the team gets together as a whole for the veterans to have faith and trust in the rookies who might be playing alongside them. It sounds as if the rookies are already bonding, getting along and on their way to becoming fast friends. Hopefully the rest of the line will end up the same way. More importantly, when they’re on the field, they need to have the attitude to maul people, and given that’s how all of Fautanu, Frazier and McCormick played in college, that should translate to the NFL and help endear them to their teammates.
