Pittsburgh Steelers C Ryan McCollum will start for the team on Sunday against the New York Jets. It’s technically the second start of his career, starting one game as a rookie for the Detroit Lions in 2021. But if anything, that only makes him hungrier to have this opportunity to start.
“I’m very excited,” McCollum acknowledged on Wednesday about the prospect of starting, via the Steelers’ website. “I’ve kind of been waiting for it. I’ve been preparing for it for the past four years of my career, so just excited to showcase my talents.”
While McCollum spent his rookie season as a college free agent with the Detroit Lions, he played under 100 snaps that season. Over the next two years, he spent his entire time on the Steelers’ practice squad. Only Nate Herbig’s season-ending injury likely prevented him from repeating that fate in 2024.
And it is, of course, injury providing McCollum with his latest opportunity. Rookie starting C Zach Frazier suffered an ankle injury last week, and he will miss at least one game. More realistically, we likely won’t see him before the other side of the Steelers’ Week 9 bye.
Undrafted out of Texas A&M in 2021, Ryan McCollum has been with the Steelers since August 2022. He originally signed with the Houston Texans, the Lions signing him off Houston’s practice squad in October 2021. Detroit waived him in mid-August the following year, however, and the Steelers claimed him off waivers.
Outside of their waiving him to move him to the practice squad, he has consistently remained in the Steelers’ organization since then. He knows their offense and blocking scheme better than almost anyone else. And McCollum has former A&M teammate Dan Moore Jr. to help him along if he needs it.
While we know McCollum will start, the Steelers tried to play coy about who would start at quarterback. We could see both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, but if so, it doesn’t matter to the new center.
“I’ve played with all three of them all through training camp and then practice as well,” McCollum said of the Steelers’ quarterbacks, including Kyle Allen. “I feel comfortable with all three of them.”
And he insisted that he has a “high” level of comfort with each quarterback.
Moore praised McCollum as a hard worker and a vocal leader, an asset at the center position. While a lot of Steelers fans might not have a great deal of familiarity with him, the team knows McCollum well. If they thought less of him, they could have easily added a veteran center to be the backup. Especially given they planned to start a rookie.
But they didn’t, and while that obviously says a lot about what they think of Zach Frazier, it also speaks to their feelings about Ryan McCollum. They trusted that he could handle this opportunity. And he trusts that he is “definitely” ready for the moment, however long it lasts. He has waited this long, after all.
