The Pittsburgh Steelers needed to nail their draft selection at the center position this year after three seasons of poor play at the position. They seem to have done just that with their second-round pick out of West Virginia, Zach Frazier.
He hasn’t been available for the last two games because of a high-ankle injury, but his first six starts had Steelers OC Arthur Smith forgetting that Frazier is in just his first NFL season.
“I don’t even look at him as a rookie,” Smith said via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo on X. “Zach is playing good football. We expect that to continue.”
Frazier logged a full practice on Wednesday and appears to be on schedule to return to the lineup for Week 10 against the Washington Commanders. While Ryan McCollum filled in admirably, he was not providing the top-notch center play that Frazier had been prior to the injury.
According to Pro Football Focus, Frazier has the fifth-highest overall grade at the position this season. His 82.2 grade has him one spot ahead of Lions C Frank Ragnow and just below Ravens C Tyler Linderbaum.
This is a direct product of Frazier’s high level of experience coming out of college. In four years, Frazier had 2,606 center snaps with the Mountaineers. Compared to the rest of the starters in the NFL, that is the third-most experience of all centers coming out of college. It is probably no surprise that Erik McCoy, PFF’s No. 1 center, was also at the top of that list. He also had easily translatable skills from college to the pros. Frazier’s grip strength and understanding of leverage that come from his wrestling background have been the foundation of his success in the NFL so far.
Frazier’s first start in Week 1 was probably the most impressive rookie debut I have seen from an offensive lineman in quite some time. He had no fewer than six pancake blocks and probably 10 total knockdowns with Atlanta Falcons defenders ending up on the turf left and right.
When he exited the lineup with an injury, the o-line was still stabilizing with the return of Isaac Seumalo and the injury of James Daniels shaking things up at the time. Even the offensive tackle position was in flux with Troy Fautanu getting placed on IR and Broderick Jones coming back as the starter after a brief change. Now, Frazier enters the most stable period the o-line has had since the start of the season. Those players can finally start to jell, and Frazier coming back should only accelerate that process.
