The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t expect Zach Frazier to start throughout his rookie season. When Nate Herbig went down for the year, though, it gave them a chance to find out they may have struck gold with their second-round pick. Frazier accomplished a lot of things in his rookie campaign. Going forward, he wants to focus on becoming more of a leader as well.
“I would say that would be the next step,” Frazier said in an interview with Steelers.com’s Missi Matthews. “I feel like when you come in you have to establish yourself as a player first before anyone’s gonna look to you as a leader. I’m really just gonna keep my head down and keep working. And then if there’s opportunities to lead that’s where I’ll grow.”
Nobody expected Frazier to be a leader in 2024. He stepped in as a starter on very short notice. Despite that, he had a very impressive rookie season. He played in 15 games, starting all of them. While he did miss two games with an injury, he still played a whopping 976 snaps. Frazier was very reliable during a season in which the Steelers’ depth was being tested in a major way, especially along the line.
Despite being a rookie, Frazier found himself in some very good company. Pro Football Focus awarded him the sixth-highest overall grade of all eligible centers at 76.8. He had the sixth-highest run-blocking grade and 22nd-highest pass-blocking grade.
With all of that said, the center is the quarterback of the offensive line. Frazier seems to be a relatively reserved player. As his career develops, and he hopefully develops into a stalwart at the position in Pittsburgh, he will need to slowly become more of a leader. Given the way his career has started, that’s not something anyone should be concerned about.
The offensive line as a whole has some promising signs for the future. Mason McCormick took on an expanded role in 2024 due to injuries, and he did a solid job. The Steelers will also essentially have an extra rookie next year with their first full season of Troy Fautanu. There’s a lot to be excited about with this unit, and Zach Frazier is right in the middle of it.
