The Pittsburgh Steelers were very clearly in the market for a long-term solution at center this offseason. Omar Khan said at the 2024 NFL Combine that they owed it to themselves to find the next great Steelers center. The Mason Cole experiment didn’t work out, and his contract was terminated early before the start of free agency. They kicked the tires on veteran C Mitch Morse, but he signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars and would have been a short-term solution anyways. They ended up satisfying that need with West Virginia C Zach Frazier in the second round.
Playing at West Virginia, Frazier was just an hour’s drive away from Pittsburgh, and they were able to get familiar with him throughout his college career as a result. Assistant GM Andy Weidl held a press conference this afternoon and described the long-held interest in Frazier and why they ultimately selected him in the second round.
“I think a guy like Zach, we always respected. The number of games he started at West Virginia. He’s a captain, he’s a mature guy,” Weidl said in a video of the presser posted on the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “We just knew him really well. He’s right in our backyard. We had a comfort level.
“We saw him play here two years ago against Pitt. And I remember at halftime, Dan Colbert coming up to me, and he’s like, ‘Did you see that center from West Virginia dumping guys on the ground?’ I said, yeah, we both saw it. He was on our radar then.”
This gives some insight into the timeline that personnel departments and front offices work with. They are aware of players two or three years before they ultimately get drafted. After viewing some of his performances, it sounds like Frazier was a favorite in the clubhouse.
He also described a game they went to watch against BYU, in which West Virginia put up over 300 yards of rushing, including over 200 in the first half. It was a dominant 37-7 win for the Mountaineers, and Frazier stuck out to them once again.
“He was just mowing guys down,” Weidl said.
His on-field performance is only part of what makes Frazier so impressive. He was a three-time team captain. He is married and has a simple, uncomplicated family life. He was also an excellent student, with nearly a perfect 4.0 GPA throughout college.
“Just getting to know the kid from the school visit. The makeup, he has a special football character to him,” Weidl said. “We took all those guys into account. There were good centers, obviously, throughout the draft we felt. But he was one of the better ones. We were just fortunate to get him where we got him in the second round.”
Reports that surfaced during the draft indicated that the Steelers had no inkling that Frazier would make it to them at pick No. 51. There was a lot of media chatter about the Steelers maybe needing to trade up in the second round to secure one of the top three center prospects. They ended up waiting patiently and the board broke perfectly for them to land Frazier.
Frazier probably had the single-best performance of the rookies in the preseason opener against the Houston Texans last Friday. If you trust Pro Football Focus, he received the highest grade, 73.5 overall. He showed off his latch strength with some really impressive technique to reach block and seal off defenders. He also did the routine stuff well, like snapping the football and helping lead the offensive line with communication. QB Kyle Allen praised him for being wise beyond his years.
For the moment, Nate Herbig still appears to be ahead of Frazier on the depth chart, but the rookie has done everything necessary and is poised to earn the starting job by Week 1 if his performance in the final two preseason games remains consistent.
It has to be a great feeling for talent evaluators to have a guy pegged as somebody to watch two years prior and then see it through to have him as the potential Week 1 starter as a rookie.
