Including Mason McCormick, the Pittsburgh Steelers return five offensive linemen who started last season, but will they all start in 2025? Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu are the obvious tackles, and Zach Frazier is the center. There is no indication that Isaac Seumalo won’t be at left guard after a Pro Bowl year.
But McCormick is the one in the group who didn’t earn a starting job. He only played last season after first Seumalo and then James Daniels suffered injuries. Though the Steelers drafted him hoping he would develop into a starter, Ray Fittipaldo doesn’t think they hand him the job.
“I do think [Mason] McCormick played well enough, and he’s probably gonna come back and, to use a Mike Tomlin phrase, be in ‘pole position’ there”, he said on the North Shore Drive podcast. “But I think they could very easily provide some competition for him. You could probably bring Nate Herbig back on a cheap deal”.
Herbig spent the 2024 season on IR after tearing his rotator cuff. At the time, he was competing with Frazier for the Steelers’ starting center position but has played guard more. He just completed a two-year, $8 million contract. If the Steelers were to re-sign him, it would likely be cheaper than that, and he could compete with McCormick.
The Steelers drafted Mason McCormick in the fourth round last year, after using their first two picks on offensive linemen. They took OT Troy Fautanu in the first round and C Zach Frazier in the second. Frazier claimed the starting job after Herbig’s injury, though he was already on his way to doing so. Fautanu, after overcoming an injury, started in Week 2, then suffered another, season-ending injury.
Had Fautanu not gone down, the Steelers would have had an all-rookie right side of the line from center on. McCormick, though, is the caveat because he began the season as a backup and inherited playing time.
The Steelers do like Herbig, who has 17 career starts and over 2,000 snaps under his belt. But McCormick got a good amount of experience already as a rookie. Still, it would be a cheap and easy move for the Steelers to make. “I think he could push Mason [McCormick]. It wouldn’t be a situation where Mason is just walking in in his second year and automatically being a starter”, Fittipaldo insisted.
I think almost everybody, though, would expect Mason McCormick to beat out Nate Herbig if that is the approach the Steelers take. Many expect them to address the guard position in the draft anyway, in preparation for life after Seumalo. They also retain Spencer Anderson, who is going into his third season and started a few games a year ago.
McCormick generally acquitted himself well under the circumstances for the Steelers. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have some room to grow, for sure. And the entire lined trailed off late in the year, especially the rookies. But it’s reasonable to expect him to take a step forward in his second season. For as experienced as he was in college, there is no substitute for playing against an NFL team.
