Unfortunate as it was to lose Nate Herbig for the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers made a seamless transition to rookie Zach Frazier. A move that felt inevitable even if Herbig stayed healthy and received the initial nod at center. Finding Frazier’s backup could take some more evaluation.
Speaking to reporters following Tuesday’s practice, Mike Tomlin talked about and talked up the options the team has behind Zach Frazier when asked about rookie Mason McCormick’s ability to play multiple spots.
“He’s a guy that’s versatile, but we’ve got a lot of guys that are versatile,” Tomlin said via a team-provided transcript. “Spencer [Anderson] is versatile, as well. He’s done some of that in the past, and so we feel really comfortable about our multi-positional flexibility there.”
Anderson is among the Steelers’ most flexible backups. During his first training camp last summer, he played all five offensive line spots. In preseason action as a rookie, he logged snaps at everything but left tackle. Pittsburgh asked him to concentrate on guard to begin this camp, but a knee injury to Troy Fautanu opened the door for Anderson to play right tackle, too. He played 15 snaps at right tackle against the Buffalo Bills.
Still, Anderson didn’t receive any organized work at the center throughout training camp. The only work he saw was helping quarterbacks warm up very early in practice when all four quarterbacks—Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Kyle Allen, and John Rhys Plumlee—would work 1v1 with centers taking snaps. Needing a fourth center, Anderson would often assume that role.
But McCormick saw reps there, too. And when Herbig went down late in the final camp practice, McCormick logged a handful of reps during the last 11 on 11 period. A guard throughout college, Pittsburgh showed interest in him as a center before landing Zach Frazier two rounds earlier in April’s draft.
With Herbig on IR and the Steelers likely keeping nine offensive linemen, Anderson should easily make the 53. His versatility makes him more valuable than ever. McCormick is a lock to make it, his fourth-round status already giving him high odds to stick and his strong summer cementing it. Roster cutdowns could hint if the rarely-seeking-comfort Tomlin is truly content with either of those options or if the team will consider another name like veteran Ryan McCollum or an outside free agent to backup Zach Frazier.
