When the Pittsburgh Steelers bring former West Virginia center Zach Frazier into training camp, they will find a player with a lot of great characteristics.
He has the experience of a lineman who started 100 games from ninth grade to college, as well as the strength of a four-time state champion wrestler who did not lose a single bout after his freshman year at Fairmont (W.Va.) High School.
But that’s not the only reason the Steelers selected Frazier in the second round (51st overall) on Friday night.
Frazier (6-foot-2, 315 pounds) was one of the most accomplished centers in college football throughout his time in Morgantown and was projected by The Athletic to be “a quality NFL starting center the moment he is drafted.”
After a high school football career in which he was first-team all-state three times and honorable mention as a freshman, he was an honorable-mention freshman All-American at WVU in 2020. He is the first West Virginia non-redshirted freshman to start on the offensive line since 1980. He improved to second-team All-American as a sophomore and senior and first-team as a junior.
At the NFL Combine, he was recovering from a broken leg suffered in the final regular-season game, but he put up 30 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press. Weightlifting came natural for Frazier, who built his own home gym when he was in middle school.
The Steelers were known to have entered the draft in desperate need for a center. They’d been without a starter at the position since the release of veteran Mason Cole in February. Cole had been the Steelers’ first-team snapper for two seasons since signing a three-year deal in March 2022. He replaced Kendrick Green, who was a starter in 2021 as a rookie third-round pick selected to replace 12-year perennial Pro Bowler Maurkice Pouncey.
Many thought the Steelers might take a center in Round 1, and they had the pick of the litter of centers when they selected No. 20 overall Thursday. Instead, though, the Steelers took a tackle in Washington’s Troy Fautanu.
Center again was prominent among Steelers’ known targets in Round 2.
As might be expected in having the 20th pick of the round, many of the potential names the Steelers might have been interested in flew off the board in quick succession almost as soon as the draft got back underway soon after 7 p.m. Friday.
Three receivers went among the first five selections of the second round. Then, starting with the eighth pick of the second round (40th overall), four consecutive picks were used on cornerbacks. Two had visited the Steelers’ facility (Iowa’s Cooper DeJean and Rutgers’ Max Melton) in an official capacity earlier this month.
But though receiver and cornerback are known areas of need, center was arguably the Steelers’ most gaping hole. Duke’s Graham Barton went 26th overall to Tampa Bay late Thursday, and the other consensus top-two center — Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson — made it to No. 44 overall when Las Vegas nabbed him.
That left Frazier atop the available centers.
Prior to joining West Virginia, Frazier was recruited on both sides of the ball. Stanford regarded him as a defensive lineman, and Tony Gibson, the previous Mountaineers defensive coordinator, wanted him in his group. However, after coach Neal Brown took control, Louisville, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia all saw him as an offensive lineman.
Frazier is from an athletic family. His grandfather and three uncles were all state wrestling champions in West Virginia.
